It isn’t a medal, but an honour nonetheless. Come 2023, India will host the annual session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Mumbai. At this year’s conclave in Beijing, India received 99% of the votes. With this win, it returns to India after 40 years. The last one we hosted was in New Delhi the year after 1982’s Asian Games. The big decision to be taken in Mumbai will be the host country for the 2030 Winter Olympics.
What Indian sports fans are keen to know, however, is when India would be in a position to make a winning bid for the chance to stage the Summer Olympics Games. Since at least the Los Angeles games of 1984, the top commercial proposition seemed to carry the vote, and bidders have sought to use the event to draw global tourist and investor attention to their country and as part of an economic-boost plan. This also means that competition to play host has grown fierce. India would have the added advantage of being a major economy that has not yet had a go, which could swing some votes just based on this fact. Hopefully, we will have a well worked-out proposal at some point that IOC members will find attractive.
