Olympics hosting right: Hope rises for Africa

World sports governing body, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has voted for reforms that could see African countries host the world biggest and most glamorous sports fiesta, the Olympic games, that has never been hosted by the continent.
IOC at its two- day meeting in Monaco, France voted for reforms that would make the Olympic bidding process a lot cheaper, even as potential hosts will now get extra financial support and be allowed to stage some events in other cities, and even countries – opening up the prospect of joint bids.

Going by the new IOC plan tagged “Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms” the 28-sports cap which was before now part of the games has been dropped for a more flexible arrangement that would see the Olympics being restricted to 10,500 athletes and 310 events.

Interestingly, the event-based focus could allow more sports to be part of games which is staged every four years.

“This movement to an event-based program will offer more flexibility,” IOC member Franco Carraro told BBC sports yesterday.

The changes mean sports such as baseball/softball and squash, which have previously not been added to the Olympic program, could be part of future Games.
However, that would require an existing Olympic sport, which enjoys multiple competitions, to reduce the number of its events.

Reacting to the announcement, World Squash Federation (WSF) president Narayana Ramachandran said: “I have always said that my task has been to keep pushing at the Olympic Games Programme door for Squash. Now that I can see that a little light is coming through at the edges I am delighted of course.

“However, we cannot get ahead of ourselves. We simply remain hopeful that the changes will take us forward onto the next stage of our dream being realised at the earliest opportunity.”

The 2022 Winter Games campaign saw four of six candidates drop out of the bidding process over financial concerns