Could Bach award India the 2036 Olympics before he steps leaves?

Abolishing the traditional bid process will be one of Thomas Bach's biggest legacies as IOC President. The Zeus Files wonders whether he has one more surprise left before he officially steps down

“Targeted dialogue and “preferred hosts” are among the new phrases added to the Olympic lexicon by Thomas Bach. The outgoing International Olympic Committee President ripped up the play book on bidding during his 12-years in charge and left us with, arguably, the opaquest system in the organisation’s 131-year history. It is a process which seems to owe more to political patronage than whether a country is really ready to host the Olympics or deserves them.

The system was formulated in 2016, three years after Bach was elected IOC President, and seems to owe as much to the humiliation he suffered as head of Munich’s campaign for the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games as genuine reform. That bid received only 25 votes as Pyeongchang romped home in the first round with 63.

“We have to take into consideration that the procedure as it now produces too many losers,” Bach said. “You can be happy about a strong field in quantity for one day but you start to regret it the next day. It is not the purpose of an Olympic candidate city procedure to produce losers. It is to produce the best possible host for an Olympic Games. We will have to look into this.”