Following its success in getting the 2010 Commonwealth Games India is considering a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Randhir Singh, secretary general of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said, “we would be bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games to be held in Delhi”. Singh is also India’s representative to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Bids for the 2016 Games begin in 2009.
Singh says that India’s bid for the 2016 Games would be based on its track record of hosting international sporting events successfully. He said, “we were the originators of the Asian Games, and have hosted it twice. Recently we successfully hosted the 1st Afro Asian Games in Hyderabad”.
But veteran sports commentator Dr. Narottam Puri isn’t so sure that India would win the 2016 bid. He said that no country has won the Olympics on its first attempt. “I would rate it bleak especially after considering our sporting achievements at the Olympics level”.
According to senior sports journalist Novy Kapadia, “if India would get to host the 2016 Olympics would depend a lot on how it hosts the 2010 Commonwealth Games”.
