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Olympics: Africa must wait for 20 years – IOC
Written by Duncan Thursday, 29 July 2010
ShareAfrica is unlikely to host the Olympics for at
least 20 years despite the success of the soccer World Cup in South
Africa which gave rise to hopes the continent might bid to host the
Games soon, an IOC official told Reuters on Wednesday.
”There
is a huge amount of work to be done besides political desire, hence the
experts‘ view that any realistic chance for (hosting the) Olympics in
Africa is between 2030 and 2040,” said Nawal El Moutawakel, who chaired
the IOC‘s coordinating committee for the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics.
”I
have read studies by some universities specialising in the Olympics who
gave Africa between 2030 and 2040 to host the Games and that is a very
realistic chance because Olympics is a different ball game,” she said.
The
Moroccan 1984 Los Angeles Olympics 400m hurdles champion also chaired
IOC‘s coordinating committee for the London 2012 Summer Games.
El
Moutawakel is in the Kenyan capital Nairobi as part of the organising
committee of the 17th African Athletics Championships which kicked off
on Wednesday.
”I know South Africa did a wonderful job
with the FIFA World Cup, right from the airport, going into the
Johannesburg city and suburbs in wide smooth roads, to world class
hotels and wonderful facilities in all the cities,” she said.
This sparked hope among Africans that the continent could follow up by staging its first Olympics probably in 2020, she said.
”But
soccer World Cup is one sport in nine cities, with 64 matches played by
32 countries in one month. Olympics is 26 sports in one city played by
10,500 athletes in three weeks and watched by billions around the
world,” El Moutawakel said.
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