Qatar confirms bid to host 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games – The New York Times

Olympics
The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has confirmed its bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The QOC is in ongoing discussions with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as part of the election process, per a news release on its website.
Qatar hosted the 2019 World Athletics Championships and the 2022 men’s World Cup, which attracted widespread controversy due to the nation’s anti-homosexuality laws and labor conditions, which human rights groups routinely condemned, as thousands of migrant workers died building the stadiums in the build-up to the soccer tournament.
Seven new stadiums were constructed ahead of the World Cup, which was moved from summer to winter due to concerns over fans and athletes suffering in the extreme heat.
“We currently have 95 per cent of the required sports infrastructure in place to host the Games, and we have a comprehensive national plan to ensure 100 per cent readiness of all facilities,” QOC president Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani said in the release.
“This plan is rooted in a long-term vision aimed at building a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable legacy. Our objective goes beyond simply organizing a successful event, we aim to deliver a global experience that reinforces the values of inclusivity, sustainability, and international collaboration.”
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If Qatar is successful in its bid to host the Games in its capital city of Doha, it would be the first held in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The country has previously failed in attempts to host the Games (2016 and 2020) amid concerns over whether it had the infrastructure to stage such a major event.
Other confirmed bids for the 2036 edition include Nusantara, Indonesia; Istanbul, Turkey; Ahmedabad, India and Santiago, Chile.
The 2028 Games are set to take place in Los Angeles, United States — two years after the nation is a co-host alongside Canada and Mexico for the 2026 men’s World Cup — while the Games after that will move hemispheres to Brisbane, Australia in 2032.
The QOC release says that Qatar’s facilities “have been tested across multiple World Championships and major multi-sport events” and all its venues meet the standards for Olympic and Paralympic competition.
Qatar hosts annual tournaments on the ATP and WTA tennis tours, as well as a Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Doha Diamond League meet. It also hosted the 2024 World Aquatics Championships and the 2015 men’s Handball World Championship.
An Olympics in Qatar would raise questions about possibly moving the Games from summer to winter, as the World Cup did three years ago, and newly-elected International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry appeared open to switching the Games from its traditional mid-year slot when speaking to The Athletic earlier this year.
“We have an incredible amount of interest in the Games for 2036 and 2040 from new regions, which is exciting,” Coventry said. “It opens up the question of the timing of the Games and I think we need to be proactive about that, both summer and winter. We’ve already had to make adjustments for certain events — the marathon in Tokyo, for instance.
“Let’s have these conversations now instead of waiting for the climate to push us into a corner where we have to make rushed decisions. Do we need to remain steadfast on when we hold the Games? I think we have to start that conversation to open up new regions and countries.”
Around the time of the World Cup in November 2022, 88 per cent of Qatar’s population was made up of foreign workers. The Guardian reported in February 2021 that the thousands of workers who died during construction projects came from countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. World Cup organisers stated that 40 had died while constructing stadiums, with only three being work-related.
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Questions surrounding workers’ rights, beyond the uncertain death toll, came from the kafala system, where migrant workers were monitored by their employers, known as sponsors. This affected their ability to change jobs and leave the country, leaving them open to issues workers reported such as unpaid wages, excessive working hours and illegal recruitment.
At least 60 foreign workers were arrested in Qatar ahead of the World Cup in 2022 after they protested claiming they had not been paid for months. The Qatari government confirmed at the time to The Athletic that some protesters were detained for “breaching public safety laws.” It was claimed those detained were held in poor conditions with the temperature as high as 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 F) and no air conditioning.
Questions also arose as to the ability of protestors to express their views on the tournament being held in Qatar. It was revealed in 2022 that protestors at the World Cup could face a five-year prison sentence for “stirring up public opinion” under Qatar’s Penal Code. The law was condemned by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
“Like other bidding countries, Qatar must make clear how it will protect workers’ rights and respect free expression in order to host the Games,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of business and human rights. “However, the country has still failed to compensate hundreds of thousands of workers who suffered severe abuses in the run up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
“The International Olympic Committee must surely ask what Qatar will do to ensure remedy for these workers if it is to host another major event. Sports bodies cannot simply turn the page and move on while workers await justice.”
Analysis by senior sports news reporter Matt Slater
An ambitious target, learning from defeat and overcoming obstacles are standard chapters in stories of Olympic glory and Doha will be hoping its 20-year mission to host the Games ends in the same golden-hued fashion.
But is that hope realistic?
Let’s start with the case for pessimism. Doha has bid for the Games twice before, for the 2016 and 2020 editions, but failed to make the shortlist both times.
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Unlike certain international sports federations we could mention, the IOC takes its technical assessments quite seriously and it effectively failed Doha’s bids on the grounds that the Qatari capital was too small, too hot and lacked the global ‘wow’ factor that broadcasters and sponsors crave.
The IOC did not say this but it was also concerned about Qatar’s stance on democracy, homosexuality, media freedom, workers’ rights and all the other human rights-related issues that dogged the long build-up to the 2022 World Cup.
The small but wealthy Gulf state clearly keeps receipts as it responded to the IOC’s rejection by deciding to bid for the world championships of several major Olympic sports: handball, athletics, aquatics, table tennis, shooting and, of course, football. And with each event it staged, those human-rights concerns moved further into global sport’s rearview mirror.
Which brings us to the case for optimism: Doha today is clearly a very different potential host city than it was when it first bid for the Games in 2007, when the only proof of concept it could point to was the 2006 Asian Games.
As the QOC points out, it has already built — and used — nearly all of the required venues, as well as a huge airport, metro system and lots of hotels. And, partly because of all the sport it has hosted, Qatar has also become a much bigger player on the global stage.
So, do the grounds for optimism outweigh the case for pessimism?
For those who like certainty, the answer, I’m afraid, yes … and no.
On the one hand, the IOC is very unlikely to snub Doha as coldly as it did when it refused to shortlist the city. In fact, one of the last visits former IOC president Thomas Bach made before he handed over power to Coventry last month was to Qatar to see the World Table Tennis Championships. All the usual IOC pleasantries were exchanged.
But on the other hand, as the transition from Bach to Coventry would imply, the Olympic movement is at one of its periodic “crossroads moments.”
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Bach basically made the last three big hosting decisions — Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 — himself. Coventry has promised to return to something closer to the more open bidding contests of the past, which appears to have revitalised the whole bidding-race business.
Put it this way, Doha will not be short of rivals, with bids from Chile, India, Indonesia and Turkey already declared and the likes of Egypt, Germany and South Korea mulling it over. There is also the very real prospect that Qatar’s bigger, pushier and richer neighbour Saudi Arabia will enter the fray.
And if you’re wondering about the heat, well, the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha took place over 10 days at the end of September and start of October, which is only a week later than the 1988 and 2000 Olympics in Seoul and Sydney, respectively.
So, the Games are a moveable feast … I just think they are more likely to be moved for India’s chosen host city of Ahmedabad than Doha. Qatar has clearly come up in the world over the last 20 years but, in a battle for eyeballs, it will have a hard job beating the world’s most populous country and its 1.5billion increasingly affluent sports fanatics.
(Top photo of Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
Jessica Hopkins is a Junior News Editor at The Athletic. She previously contributed to features and investigations across cycling, athletics and football. Follow Jessica on Twitter @JessMCHopkins

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