The International Olympic Committee, meeting in Bombay, saw India, the most populous country in the world, apply for the first time in its history to organize the Olympic Games.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his country would apply to host the 2036 Olympic Games on Saturday, October 14, during a session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Bombay. “India is very excited about hosting Olympics” And “will spare no effort” to do this, he said.
With 1.4 billion inhabitants, India is the most populous country in the world and has never hosted the Olympics. And even if Modi refrained from revealing the candidate city, it is, according to local media, in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat (northwest of the country), that the Games would take place if the IOC decided to attribute the organization to him. It would be the fourth Asian nation to have this honor, after Japan, South Korea and China.
Towards the integration of cricket into the Games, the most popular sport in India
The body must approve on Monday the integration of cricket into the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the main innovation of an Olympic program extended beyond 35 sports, a record in the history of the Games. However, this sport is extremely popular throughout the Commonwealth, and particularly in India and Ahmedabad, which has a huge stadium that can accommodate up to 130,000 spectators, and where the World Championships are currently taking place.
India’s candidacy had been expected for several months. In December 2022, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur told the Times of India newspaper that it was “good time“to be a candidate for”the organization of the biggest sporting event in the world“.”If India puts this much effort into promoting sports, I can assure you that we will not just host the Olympics, but we will host them in a big way“, he added.