World Athletics President Sebastian Coe
Credit: Reuters file Photo
Mumbai: World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said he was delighted with India's interest in hosting the 2036 summer Games but cautioned the South Asian nation that organising an Olympics was one of the world's most complex projects.
Coe, 68, a two-time Olympic 1,500 metres champion, is one of seven people bidding to replace Thomas Bach as the next president of the International Olympic Committee.
India is a growing sports power but has never hosted the Olympics. Its capital New Delhi hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2010, a $6 billion event billed as Delhi's answer to the Beijing Olympics.
But a series of embarrassments over leaking stadiums and filthy accommodation in the leadup to the Delhi Commonwealth Games muddied India's reputation as hosts of international multi-sports events.
On Monday, Coe, whose grandfather was Indian, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the country's sports minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, in Delhi where the prospect of India's bid for the 2036 Games was discussed.
"I was very pleased that India is obviously keen to one day stage an Olympic Games," Coe, who headed the bidding and organising committee that delivered the hugely successful 2012 London Olympics, told Reuters on Tuesday.
"We know that the Olympic Games is a unique sporting event and it doesn't surprise me that a country with the type of ambitions that India has and the vision for sports beyond the field of play and into the delivery of social and economic benefits, (it) would look at staging a Games."
Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are also among countries that have shown interest in hosting the 2036 Games. Los Angeles has been picked for the 2028 Games while Australia's Brisbane will stage the 2032 Olympics.
India would need political support throughout the delivery phase if it wins the bid, Coe said, adding that the organising committee must regularly inform the nation and the local communities about the benefits of hosting the Games.
"And be clear about what the legacy is. Don't let others define your legacy, define it yourself," he said during an interview in Mumbai, the country's financial capital.
"Whether it's on sports or social and urban planning, whether it's about health and related fitness, it may be all of those things, but be very clear what your legacy is, because if you're not, then others will define it for you, and that may not end well."
The world's most populous nation has an astonishingly poor return at the Olympics and the seven medals won in Tokyo 2020 was its biggest haul from a single Games. Eight of its 10 gold medals came from hockey between 1928-1980 while shooting and athletics yielded one each.
However, Coe lauded the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for its role in promoting 'kids' athletics' in India and said his visit was recognition for the AFI's efforts.
"... It is a way of encouraging obviously more young people into athletics, but also critically more young people into healthy lifestyles, both mental and physical. Athletics as we know, is the Queen, the mother, of all sports," he said.