The Egyptian Olympic Committee (EOC) hopes to send as many as 150 athletes to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, surpassing the 132 who won six medals at Tokyo 2020 and marking the nation’s largest team ever.
Success in Paris could help bolster Egypt’s resume if the country decides to enter the race to host the 2036 edition of the Games and bring the event to Africa for the first time.
“The State-of-the-Art sports infrastructure Egypt built during the last few years encouraged the country to think about organizing Games to exploit the great human and organizational capabilities” EOC treasurer Mohamed Abdel Aziz Ghoneim told Reuters this week.
Since 2016 Egypt has been constructing a “New Administrative Capital” almost 50 kilometers east of Cairo, and the plans include an International Olympic City that is highlighted by a newly built 93,000 seat stadium – the second largest in Africa. Many other sport facilities including an arena, competitive swimming pool, tennis stadium, training infrastructure and several other Olympic inspired venues could be the center of a future Olympic Games.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach visited the region in 2022 and told organizers they were on the right path.
“IOC President Thomas Bach said on a recent visit to our country that Egypt is ready to organize the Olympic Games and has come a long way, reaching 60 percent of the organizing efforts, including facilities, roads,” Ghoneim said.
“The rest are related to budget and financial issues.”
The use of existing, temporary or already planned facilities is mandatory under new bidding rules set out in the IOC’s Agenda 2020+5 roadmap that aims to promote sustainability. A ready-built sports park on a compact footprint will tick the right boxes for Egypt.
The EOC is ready to move forward with a bid but approval still needs to come from government officials.
142 athletes representing 21 sports have so far booked their tickets to Paris with more qualification events ahead.
“This large number was achieved thanks to the efforts of all Egyptian sports federations, which worked hard in cooperation with the Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Youth in order to reach the best preparation ever for the athletes,” Ghoneim said.
“The size of our Olympic team increased compared to past editions because of the qualifications in football, volleyball and handball for the Paris Games, in addition to strong results by a number of federations.”
Olympic success will be valuable if Egypt hopes to rise to the top of what is expected to be a very competitive 2036 bid race, the next available edition following Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane 2032.
There is no set timetable for the awarding of the Summer Games. The IOC’s Future Host Commission for the Games led by former Croatian president Kolinda Garbar-Kitarovic has said she doesn’t expect an election to occur before 2026 or 2027.
Last month Bach said the number of interested parties has reached the “double-digits”, but according to the IOC’s policies names have not been disclosed and are kept confidential during the preliminary ongoing dialogue phase.
Many regions have made it known they are organizing bids to host in 2036. Notably India has mounted an aggressive campaign and Germany has begun a public consultation process to measure interest. Earlier this year Turkey stepped up plans for a bid by Istanbul when the city was awarded the 2027 European Games. South Korea, Indonesia, Hungary, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also indicated possible bids. London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan had previously announce plans for 2036 but set a target for 2040.
