Durban selected as South Africa’s candidate for Olympic bids in 2036 and 2040

Games would be first held in Africa if bid successful

East-coast city preferred to Johannesburg and Cape Town

South Africa on Thursday announced the east coast city of Durban as its preferred candidate to host the first Olympics in Africa.

South Africa is bidding to host the 2036 or 2040 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city for 2036 in mid-2029.

The country’s choice to put forward Durban, South Africa’s third biggest city, was announced by South African Olympic committee acting president, Lwandile Simelane, who said Durban would be the main candidate city for South Africa’s bid, but it would probably be a “multi-city bid” that would propose some events are held in other cities.

South Africa’s economic hub of Johannesburg and Cape Town were also considered as the candidate city.

Durban was touted as a possible Olympic host city more than a decade ago after South Africa’s staging of the 2010 World Cup, the first in Africa. But an official bid did not materialise, largely due to concerns over costs.

Officials said on Thursday they were not yet able to provide any estimates regarding how much it might cost South Africa to stage the Olympics if its bid was successful.

South Africa is among seven countries bidding for the 2036 Games. The others are India, Qatar, South Korea, Germany, Hungary and Turkey.

The IOC gave 31 October as the deadline for national Olympic committees to formally declare their interest in bidding for the 2036 Games.