A century after the last Olympic Games in 1924, the sporting event with ancient Greek roots, revived by the French Baron Coubertin, returns to Paris for the third time in its history.
Over two weeks, billions of people from all continents will follow the exploits of the world’s best athletes against the backdrop of the city’s major landmarks.
This will be an opportunity for Paris to confirm its status as a city of culture and art, and for France to confirm its status as a host city and a global power.
It’s a sporting event, yes, but it’s also a business and geopolitical event.
Although universality is one of the values of the Olympic Movement, the 33 modern Summer Olympic Games have never been held in Africa.
The first was concentrated mainly in Europe, then in the Americas, and more recently in Asia.
Will Africa finally host the Olympic torch in the next decade, in the 2040s?
multi-million dollar investment
Organizing the Olympic Games is not cheap. And calculating the exact cost that a city or country might incur is not an easy task.
Evidence of this is that it is not easy to find a specific figure for the cost of organizing previous versions, as different figures are given for the same version.
There is a logical explanation for this.
The organization of the Olympic Games involves two main types of investment: on the one hand, those specifically allocated to stadiums, sports centers, Olympic villages and competitions.
On the other hand, there are those dedicated to urban transformation projects that usually accompany the organization, such as new airports, metros, water treatment plants, or improvements to parks and gardens, which each host city usually undertakes to take advantage of the opportunity.
Obviously, this project is very expensive, costing billions of dollars, and getting more expensive over time.
Although the numbers vary depending on the source, the cost of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was $20 billion, the Tokyo Olympics $13 billion, and the London Olympics $18 billion.
In addition to the high cost of organizing the world’s premier sporting event, there are often other problems such as corruption surrounding this lucrative business or cost overruns.
In some recent cases, the final cost of games has been more than double the original budget.
Olympic Games in Africa 2040?
Given the rapid growth of African cities and the general lack of sports infrastructure, the money spent on building infrastructure for a new virtual Games in Africa can be considered an investment rather than an expense.
Especially if the opportunity is taken to provide other types of facilities such as efficient public transport, subways, airports, and regeneration of deteriorating neighbourhoods.
From an external image point of view, whether from a political or commercial point of view, and even from a more specific point of view related to attracting tourism and investment, the potential of the Games can also be seen as a long-term investment for some African cities, which are generally not well known to tourists and investors outside the continent.
South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria are the countries with the greatest potential, but they are not the only ones.
The fact that no African city has hosted the Olympic Games in modern times does not mean that there have not been attempts in the past.
Alexandria, Egypt, was a candidate to host the Games in 1916 and 1936, Cape Town was recently an official candidate to host the Games in 2004, and Cairo tried again in 2008.
These two cities and countries, Egypt and South Africa, are considered among the most likely places to host the Olympic Games in Africa in the not-too-distant future.
Six Moroccan cities will host the 2030 World Cup, co-organised with Spain and Portugal, with the aim of demonstrating the country’s ability to organise a world-class sporting event.
At the beginning of the last decade, the Casablanca City Council expressed interest in hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, but the proposal did not go forward.
There is no doubt that the economic, rail and hotel development witnessed by the city of Casablanca, in addition to its recent increasing international role, will enhance Morocco’s chances of a successful candidacy.
Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga also announced at the time that Nairobi would bid to host the 2024 Olympics, although little progress has been made.
Could this be a project that unites the country and transforms East Africa’s vibrant capital?
Egypt, the political and economic center of its region for thousands of years, is one of the most populous countries and one of the largest economies (by GDP) on the continent.
African, Arab and Mediterranean, it is a bridge between sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Gulf and Europe.
Egypt is building its new administrative capital near Cairo, partly with foreign funding.
Regional political instability and domestic conditions may not help in this matter.
But if the Olympic money is spent wisely and invested in Cairo and its new neighbor, it could be the start of much-needed urban, environmental and social renewal in one of the continent’s oldest and most populous cities.
This project will be a great challenge with the potential to achieve a very high return. It will also be a window for tourism investment and modernization.
The key here is what image does Egypt and Cairo want to present to the world?
On the other side of the world, South Africa, the country that overcame apartheid, and Cape Town, considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world, tried to become an Olympic city.
South Africa was the first African country to host the FIFA World Cup, doing so successfully despite initial skepticism from the international community, and has been one of the continent’s most important economies since the 20th century, even if it has not been experiencing its finest hour.
Its major cities, including Cape Town, need a boost and transformation that could easily come from an event like this that brings together athletes from five continents.
The country has the money to organize this, and has proven its ability to unite and come up with exciting projects that unite its diverse population.
Nigeria, a country that has become the demographic and economic giant of the continent over the past fifty years, is gradually, and not without problems, moving towards stability and international outlook.
Given her numbers, she may be a future candidate.
Although the current situation (economy and security) makes this seem like a dream, Koreans must have thought the same thing when they started talking about “Seoul 88.”
From 1970 until the sporting event in the Korean capital, the country witnessed one of the greatest transformations of the 20th century.
Few cities managed to convince the IOC to agree on the first try, but even those that did were able to make progress and share a common project to inspire their people.
The current Metropolitano stadium in Madrid, home to Atlético Fútbol Club de la Liga, dates back to the Spanish capital’s failed bid to host the Olympic Games.
Morocco, Kenya and other countries
After Los Angeles (USA) in 2028 and Brisbane (Australia) in 2032, strong contenders have already been confirmed to host the 2036 Olympic Games, such as Istanbul, which will try for the seventh time, or Nasantara, the new Indonesian capital under construction, which will appear on the world map for the first time.
India, which has yet to confirm a city, has announced its intention to host this year’s edition, while the South American city of Santiago de Chile is also on the list.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are other names that always seem like favourites to win the Olympics.
With such strong contenders already confirmed, we will likely have to wait until the 2040s to see an Olympic cauldron lit in an African city.
By that decade, the continent’s population will exceed 2,050 million, up from 850 million in 2000, the smallest population on Earth, and the economy will more than double in size, according to various reports, although future projections are always uncertain.
Other factors in favour of holding the African Games include the IOC’s need to engage with a continent that is gaining increasing importance in the international community but has never hosted the Games before.
Also paving the way are recent changes to the rules for selecting cities, which now rely more on ongoing dialogue between the Olympic body, local cities, countries and private companies interested in the Olympic goal.