South Africa’s bid to bring the Olympic Games to African soil for the first time faces an uphill commercial and competitive battle, after the country was named among seven nations invited to formally present their cases to host the 2036 Games in November.
The bid, likely to be spread across Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, is viewed as a distinct outsider in a contest where Qatar is widely regarded as the frontrunner, ahead of India and Hungary. Turkey, Germany and South Korea complete the field of countries asked to present to the International Olympic Committee’s future bid committee next month, the first stage of a process that concludes with a vote in 2029.
Qatar’s leading position rests partly on the perceived strength of its bid and on market logic: Asia has not hosted a Games since Tokyo 2020. Yet a Doha Olympics would carry a significant operational constraint, requiring the event to be moved from its traditional July-August slot because of the heat.
India is seen as the closest challenger, though its Ahmedabad bid is considered to have slipped back over the past 18 months. As the Guardian reported last year, the Indian bid received a wake-up call during a visit to Lausanne in the summer of 2025, when concerns were raised about mismanagement and governance issues at the Indian Olympic Association, the lack of detail in the bid, and the country’s dismal performance at the Paris Games.
Hungary could supply the strongest alternative to Qatar. Its bid, said to include not only Budapest but also the Austrian capital, Vienna, and the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, is very well regarded. Whether the new government in Hungary values hosting the Olympics as much as the previous prime minister, Viktor Orban, remains unclear.
Most of the remaining bids are being treated at this stage as placeholders for the 2040 Olympics. That includes Germany, where the potentially tricky optics surrounding a centenary Games weigh on its prospects.
Meanwhile, the IOC set out the commercial and delivery criteria in a handbook published on Tuesday, saying bids would be judged on technical factors including venues and athlete experience, political and public support, and the ability to deliver both a great Games and a long-term legacy, alongside their vision for the Olympics.
Kirsty Coventry, the IOC president, drew on her athletic career in framing the process. “I was fortunate to compete at five Olympic Games, across four continents. Each had their own character,” she said. “Each host brought something unique through its people, its culture and the way it chose to stage the Games. But wherever the Games take place, one thing must never change: athletes have to be at the heart of everything we do.”
She added: “As an athlete, you spend years working to make your Olympic dream come true. The experience you have when you finally reach the Olympic Games stays with you for the rest of your life. That is why, for every future host, delivering the best possible experience for the athletes must always be the starting point.”
The timeline now firms up the race. Other countries interested in bidding for 2036 have until the end of October to confirm their intention before nominations close. The IOC said it would conduct feasibility assessments by March 2027, and in December 2028 its executive board would open a “targeted dialogue with a select number of preferred hosts”. In the summer of 2029, a vote will determine who stages the 2036 Games, leaving South Africa and its rivals roughly four years to make their investment cases count.