Qatar wanting to make use of World Cup as springboard for 2036 Olympics bid | World Cup 2022

Subsequent cease: the 2036 Olympics. Qatar believes the World Cup has gone so nicely that it may be a springboard to internet hosting the most important sporting occasion of all. The Guardian understands the nation is able to flex its muscle tissue once more and bid to stage the Video games within the autumn of 2036, regardless of having failed 3 times prior to now.

These earlier bids fell quick due partly to scepticism from inside the Worldwide Olympic Committee that such a small nation had the infrastructure to stage an occasion that pulls 10,500 athletes throughout 32 sports activities, together with hundreds of thousands of spectators. Nevertheless there may be rising optimism in Doha that this World Cup affords proof to the IOC that Qatar can ship an Olympics-style idea, with a number of venues in a single main metropolis.

At this stage it’s understood Qatar desires to go it alone. However it’s doubtless that there will likely be folks in Olympic circles who will put strain on Qatar’s Olympic Committee to have a joint Center East bid with Saudi Arabia. It was additionally maybe notable that Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who has been a member of the IOC since 2002, has posed with a Saudi flag at this World Cup.

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Given the excessive temperatures in Qatar in the course of the summer season, the occasion must be shifted to the autumn. Nevertheless it will not be the primary time that has occurred: the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo started on 10 October, whereas each Seoul 1988 and Sydney 2000 began in mid September.

Qatar would look to increase its use of air-conditioned stadiums, which have proved so profitable at this World Cup, to the programs of different out of doors venues. Such a state of affairs would allow it to keep away from the harrowing scenes that marred the ladies’s marathon on the 2019 World Athletics Championships, when practically half the sector dropped out as a result of excessive warmth and humidity regardless of the race beginning on the Corniche simply earlier than midnight.

Regardless of Qatar’s optimism, any bid would inevitably face a number of challenges. The Olympic group has much more out LGBTQ+ athletes than soccer, and they’re prone to categorical far deeper reservations on the prospect of the Video games being staged in a rustic the place being homosexual is criminalised.

The IOC would additionally not countenance any of its sponsors having its merchandise eliminated simply days earlier than the Video games started, as Budweiser confronted right here after the Qataris imposed an alcohol ban on spectators at stadiums. The IOC president, Thomas Bach, can also be considered cool on any Qatar bid. Nevertheless, he is because of step down in 2025, a 12 months earlier than the choice on the place to stage the 2036 Video games is prone to be made.

There will likely be logistical challenges too, together with easy methods to host a mountain bike competitors in a rustic the place the best level is 338 ft above sea stage. Nevertheless, Qatar will argue that a lot of the lodging, transport and stadia can also be already in place to stage a future Video games, though a brand new Olympic stadium must be constructed on condition that the Khalifa Worldwide Stadium, which staged the World Athletics Championships in 2019, has a capability of simply over 45,000.

Different nations anticipated to bid for the 2036 Video games embody India, Indonesia and Turkey.