Olympic officials talk with 10 bidders for 2036 Summer Games

The Olympic rings are shown at the main media center for the Beijing Winter Olympics Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

SEOUL, South Korea — The IOC is in talks with 10 potential candidates to host a future Summer Games, the global group of national Olympic leaders was told Thursday.

Interest in hosting the 2036 Olympics has been expressed by officials in countries including Egypt, England, India, Indonesia and Qatar.

“We are currently working with 10 interested NOCs and regions across four continents,” International Olympic Committee director general Christophe de Kepper said at the Association of National Olympic Committees meeting in Seoul, South Korea.

That Olympics is the next Summer Games available to be awarded in a mostly secretive process led by IOC officials to avoid both expensive public campaigning and a vote contested by multiple candidates.

The system that picked Brisbane as the 2032 host 11 years in advance was introduced after French-led investigations of alleged vote-buying in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics bidding. Those campaigns were won by Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, respectively.

De Kepper said the 10 bid projects who he did not identify “are at very different stages and are developing their ambitions according to their own regional or national timelines.”