The IOC Confirms Seven Countries Are Bidding for the 2036 Olympics

Seven countries will compete to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the International Olympic Committee confirmed Monday, after the Oct. 31 deadline for new entries passed without a single addition to the list it first made public in early October.

The IOC’s statement named Germany, Hungary, India, Qatar, South Korea, South Africa and Türkiye, the same seven National Olympic Committees it had identified on Oct. 6. As GamesBids reported, publishing the field at this stage marks a break from the approach the IOC took from 2019, when talks with prospective hosts were kept private until a preferred candidate emerged.

Who Is Bidding

Munich, picked in September as Germany’s candidate over a rival bid from Cologne and the Rhine-Ruhr region, was awarded the 2031 World Athletics Championships that same month, and Budapest, Hungary’s candidate, hosted the World Championships in 2023. India has put forward Ahmedabad, and its government is now moving to make supplying banned drugs to athletes a criminal offense as the bid takes shape.

South Africa named Durban as its candidate city on Oct. 29, for either 2036 or 2040, with the aim of bringing the Olympics to Africa for the first time. GamesBids expects Türkiye to go with Istanbul. In South Korea, Jeonbuk State beat Seoul in the domestic selection, and GamesBids reports the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee is assessing the province on its own, even though Jeonbuk has floated sharing the Games with the capital.

Qatar’s bid is built around Doha, which has already tried and failed to land the 2016 and 2020 Games, according to GamesBids. For distance runners, the city is better known for the 2019 World Championships, where the women’s marathon was scheduled for midnight on the Corniche and still started in temperatures officially estimated at 30 to 32.7 C with 73 percent humidity. Of the 68 women who started, 28 did not finish. Ruth Chepngetich won in 2:32:43.

When the bidders were first named, AFP noted that an Olympics in the Gulf would need to move later than the usual July and August window to get away from the heat. Just weeks after the Doha race, the IOC moved the Tokyo 2020 marathons to Sapporo, about 500 miles to the north, over the same concern.

How the Host Will Be Chosen

Each of the seven will make its case to the IOC by video presentation over the next few weeks, GamesBids reports. According to AFP, the IOC Executive Board will then draw up a shortlist in March 2027, with preferred hosts named in 2028 and a final decision expected in mid-2029.

“This will be the first edition of the Olympic Games to be elected under the Fit for the Future changes,” said Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the former president of Croatia who chairs the IOC’s Future Host Commission. Those changes are the overhaul of host selection launched under IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who set out her priority when the seven names were first published. “Wherever the Games take place, one thing must never change: Athletes have to be at the heart of everything we do,” Coventry said, according to AFP.

Whoever wins will follow Los Angeles in 2028, where each Olympic marathon has only 70 qualifying places, and Brisbane in 2032, which unveiled its Olympic emblem in October.