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How Olympics Hosts are Chosen?

 Every two years, the International Olympic Commission (IOC) starts certain bids after the various cities that are interested in hosting Olympic Games; submit applications for participation as a hosting city. Earlier, cities were selected based on being a good and popular place type of sports, for example, Horse Riding, Swimming etc. These days, cities are being selected on the basis of many criteria listed by the IOC and it has become a more rigorous process than the older days.

The various “Applicant Cities” submit their applications to the IOC and after the submission period is over, the International Olympics Commission investigates various applicant cities based on certain predefined eligibility criteria. Some of the commonly tested criteria are as follows:

1) The applicant city must be able to prove that it is capable of accommodating the large gathering of Olympics that is estimated based on previous records and certain fact sheets. The city should also provide proofs about hosting the huge number of athletes, tourists, reporters, politicians, etc that are expected to attend the event. There must be adequate number of hotels in the city apart from the transport facilities for everyone to go from one particular place to another without any hassle. There should be a reliable mass transit system for security reasons too. The city should also have a responsible and reliable security system.

2) The city should be able to overcome the expenses (e.g. by raising taxes etc) without actually letting its residents lose money against their wishes. In other words, the city should be able to convince the general population about the inflation during Olympics if any, by giving them proper reasons in favor of their benefit as well as in terms of up gradation of city.

3) There should be proper media coverage facilities available in the city.

4) The city should have a sound and practical planning about managing the whole event without any financial or other types of losses.

If any number of cities fulfills all the four criteria listed above, they are selected as the “Candidate Cities”. Here finishes the first step in selecting cities and starts the second one for which the IOC decides which city should host Olympics after careful monitoring and comparing all the pros and cons of hosting the events between various Candidate Cities. A fee is submitted for the second step application by the selected cities. After certain final decisions are made in terms of the hosting cities, bid committees are set up if the selected cities are more than one (they usually are in hundreds sometimes). Bidding costs can be very high depending on the number of cities participating the bidding. For an instance, the maximum bid for 2012 Olympics went for $150,000. High fees are usually meant to eliminate financially weaker cities. After this final selection is over the selected city for hosting is required to start preparing for hosting the Olympics from day 1 of its selection as it involves establishment of a large number of newer venues, stadiums and even an “Olympic Village” for the athletes.
By: grace
Published: 06/16/08


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11 Posted Comments:

@ 1:49 pm 07/07/08 by Ardi J.
Gee, I wish that Olympic Games are going to be held in my country! Maybe yes, but after 500 years and I won't be probably alive then! =D xD
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@ 5:42 am 07/17/08 by Xiaoyu Yang
Yeah, the Olympics will be held in my country in less a month! I'm really excited a bout that.
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@ 4:23 am 07/18/08 by Rohit Patel
Before this article I have no idea about choosing Olympic city but now it gives clear idea about process to choose an Olympic venue. I really wish if my country India which likely to bid for 2020 will get the opportunity. There are only few days to go for next olympics and I egrly wait for it since it is in Asia.
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@ 5:27 am 08/22/08 by parth
A informative article, but spending such money behind sports may be a problem for financially weaker countries. so why don't they make provisions for hosting Olympics in such countries(i mean helping them) as that would boost the country overall and sports in particular...
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@ 11:26 am 08/22/08 by L Romano
Interesting article!
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@ 6:18 am 08/26/08 by Xiaoyu Yang
Chicago is seeking to host the 2016 Olympics and both McCain and Obama has claimed to give Chicago full support to win the bid if elected.
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@ 4:59 pm 08/26/08 by R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen
Nice job on this. I was always curious how they chose where the Olympics would be held.
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@ 3:21 pm 09/01/08 by C.D. Crowder
I asked this question a while back. Glad to see someone able to answer it. Great detailed article.
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@ 5:50 pm 09/11/08 by yourstrulyisabel
Wow.. What a very long process of selecting a host for the Olympics. 2 years in the making! The IOC is doing a very good job in choosing the country. I've always wondered why my country never hosted the Oplympics. Now I know, we can't afford it. :-D
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@ 6:41 am 10/25/08 by grace
Glad you liked this article guys! I am happy to share my knowledge with you!:-)
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@ 5:23 am 10/26/08 by Vasantha
Very informative article. The extravaganza and how much money that could have cost the hosting country is mind boggling. In this world of advertisers and sponsors Olympic and such big games no doubt can generate huge revenues.
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