BERLIN (Reuters) – The Australian city of Brisbane was picked as the preferred partner to start talks for the 2032 Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday, in the first step to being named Olympic hosts.
IOC President Thomas Bach said the IOC had approved a recommendation of the commission in charge of future hosts.
“This commission recommended to the IOC executive board to enter into a targeted dialogue with Brisbane 2032. The Executive Board has unanimously approved this recommendation,” Bach told a virtual news conference.
Several cities and countries had publicly expressed an interest in the 2032 Games including Brisbane, Indonesia, Budapest, China, Doha and Germany’s Ruhr valley among others.
The IOC overhauled its bidding rules in 2019 to reduce costs and make the process easier for cities. There are no official candidate cities campaigning ahead of the vote as has been the case in the past.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)
