Australia’s Brisbane to host 2032 Summer Olympics
The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday awarded the 2032 Summer Games to Brisbane, Australia, after designating the city earlier this year as the sole contender.
Brisbane, about 450 miles north of Sydney, will become the third Australian city to host the Games after Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in 2000.
It is the first Olympic host to be selected under a new system that removes competitive bidding, a shift designed to reduce campaign costs and potential vote-buying.
Brisbane is the capital of Queensland state and has targeted sports events as a way to give it a bigger global profile after being overshadowed by Sydney and Melbourne. The city, which has a population of 2.56 million, hosted the Commonwealth Games three years ago. The IOC said that gave it confidence Brisbane had the transport infrastructure to host the Olympics.
The Games are tentatively set for July 23 to Aug. 8, 2032, the same dates on the calendar as this year’s Tokyo Olympics, which begin Friday.
Tokyo won the right to host the Games in 2013 under the traditional process in which it competed against other cities to win a closely fought final vote by IOC members. Tokyo beat out Istanbul and Madrid.
French authorities have investigated whether a former president of the Japanese Olympic Committee was involved in bribing African countries to back Tokyo’s bid. The official has denied wrongdoing.
The IOC decided in 2017 that Paris would host the 2024 Summer Games and Los Angeles would host in 2028, completing an unprecedented arrangement under which the IOC named both sites at once.
The Brisbane Games will take place during Australia’s winter, with temperatures in the city typically peaking around 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The IOC said in February that these were favorable conditions for athletes. Temperatures topped 90 degrees in Tokyo on Wednesday and are expected to remain high throughout the Games.
