The successful conduct of the G20 Summit last year has boosted the Indian people’s confidence that the country is ready to host the Olympics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an exclusive interview with News18’s Aman Sharma, Payal Mehta, Aman Chopra and Amitabh Sinha on Saturday. He added that he has formed a team and instructed them to study how similar global sporting events and world championships are held in other countries.
“Anyone who has analysed in detail the G20 Summit hosted by India last year is confident that now Bharat has the potential to host such global events,” he said, adding that the G20 experience has helped counter the negative after-effects of the scam-hit 2010 Commonwealth Games hosted by India.
“There were so many bitter experiences associated with the Commonwealth Games of 2010 that it shattered Indians’ confidence in hosting such events. After G20, that confidence that returned; people know we too can organise such events,” the Prime Minister said.
“Another positive impact of hosting the G20 Summit was that related events were held on an equally grand scale at 60-70 locations across India. This led to confidence-building across the country. Had we focused only on Delhi, it would have seemed like a sarkari (government) programme. But this was a people-driven G20 and it shows how big India can go in hosting these events,” he added.
Stressing that India should bid for the 2036 Olympics, PM Modi said he has formed a team to study upcoming events like the 2029 Youth Olympics, 2024 Chess Olympiad, World Beach Games etc. “I have formed a team and told them to go as observers to all these events and study the details.”
The Prime Minister recounted the experience of witnessing the nitty-gritties of hosting the Olympics at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
“I had gone to watch the Olympics in Atlanta. I was interested in the management and coordination details. I wanted to see how such a huge event is organised. One interesting thing I noticed was that those travelling to the Olympic village had to park their cars some 200-250km away. From there, they boarded buses. Now the game they wanted to go to and the corresponding bus were assigned the same colour. So if they wanted to watch the hockey match, they knew which bus to board. The bus took them to the Metro (subway) station. Special trains with colour-coded coaches took them to the stadium where the match was taking place. I have told my team to similarly study other details of organising the Olympics and such global events.”
“We have to develop human resources, ready the infrastructure, understand what are the needs… At the same time, we have to prepare India’s athletes. If we are hosting the Olympics, how can someone else take the Gold medal?”
Prime Minister Modi had declared in October last year India’s intention to bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai, he had said hosting the event is “the age-old dream” for India.
“Indians are not just sports lovers, but we also live it,” Modi said. “India will leave no stone unturned in the preparation for the successful organisation of the Olympics in 2036 – this is the dream of the 140 crore (1.4 billion) Indians.”
Apart from India, countries competing for the 2036 bid are Indonesia, Mexico and Poland.
No firm timeframe has been set by the IOC for when hosting rights for the 2036 Games will be awarded. The 2036 Summer Games is the next available edition: Paris will host in 2024, Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032.
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