At the beginning of last year, with all the fanfare, Mexico’s bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games was announced. There was no shortage of joyful calculations that, if the bid was successful, the Aztec capital would host the world’s top sporting event twice. However, reality -and rivals- have weighed heavily when it came to choosing other attractive options for the Aztec country: the Youth Olympic Games.
The Olympic announcement was nothing more than the ratification of the intention expressed in October 2022, which pointed to 2026, or even 2040. Expectations often exceed realism, and it seems that on this occasion, in a Mexico facing a polarized presidential election, the force of numbers delivered its verdict. Thus, the Mexican sports authorities were forced to come clean about the real economic possibilities and the numbers were not good enough. “We had a talk with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and we saw that the competition was very tough,” declared the helmswoman of the Aztec Olympics, María José Alcalá. Financial giants such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar are in the race.
But this withdrawal, clarified Alcalá, did not imply giving up the idea of organizing a planetary event again: “We are turning around to host the Youth Olympic Games, which is where we would have a great chance,” added the head of the Mexican Olympic Committee. The Youth Olympic Games, reserved for athletes between 14 and 18 years old, were proposed at the end of the last century and approved in 2007, with Singapore being the inaugural edition in 2010, to be held in Nankin and Buenos Aires, respectively. The next version will be held in Dakar in 2026, so the Aztec postulation aims at 2030 (an ambition shared by the Paraguayan and Colombian Olympic Committees) or, as a second option, 2034.
The calculation is realistic since, as far as is known, there are 7 countries interested in hosting them: Colombia (Medellin or Cartagena), India (New Delhi or Mumbai), Ukraine (Odessa or Kiev), Thailand (Bangkok), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Sarajevo), Cambodia (Nom Pen) and Paraguay (Asuncion).
AN INFINITELY SMALLER INVESTMENT THAN THE JJOO
In terms of figures, the organization of the youth version of the Olympic Games could cost around 1.15 billion dollars, based on the 2018 event in Buenos Aires, since the next one, scheduled for 2022, could not be held because of the pandemic. It is true that, due to the years that have passed and the inflation that has hit the planet in recent years, these numbers should be corrected upwards, but in the worst of the projections, these figures are infinitely lower than those necessary to aspire to organize the top celebration of world sport. These numbers are very different from those of the investment of the organizers of the Olympic Games, which in the present century has been around 13,000 million dollars, the ceiling being the 51,000 million dollars of Beijing 2008.
The Aztec land has witnessed one Olympic Games, three Pan American Games and four Central American and Caribbean Games. Not to mention the fact that it is preparing to co-host the 2026 World Cup, after being the exclusive host in 1970 and 1986. The iconic experience of 1968 will not be repeated in the short and medium term. Economic responsibility, which is not always the norm, prevailed over populist calculations. However, the bid to host the Youth Olympic Games follows the path that has raised Mexico’s status as a distinguished organizer of the world’s top sports competitions.
