THE STRONGEST signs yet of Hong Kong and the wider Greater Bay Area making a bid for the Olympics have emerged from top officials attending the China National Games currently being held across the GBA.
Comments by President Xi Jinping during the Games’ opening ceremony, and a meeting held earlier in the day with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry and her predecessor Thomas Bach, highlighted the potential of the GBA to host the 2036 Summer Games.
“We believe this National Games will not only showcase new achievements in China’s sports development in the new era, but also present the vibrant landscape of Chinese modernisation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area,” Xi told the opening ceremony in Guangzhou.
Campaigners for GBA cities to organise a joint bid view Xi’s comments and those later made by former IOC president Bach as adding weight to bring the Games to the region, which consists of Hong Kong, Macao and cities in Guangdong province.
Bach, who was at Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong this week to watch the opening rounds of the Rugby Sevens’ events, told media that the city and the wider GBA “could be a very important candidate for future Olympic Games”.
If HKSAR government officials were looking for signs of what to do, you can’t get much better than these highly public endorsements by President Xi and Thomas Bach
– Brett Free, co-chair, AustCham Sports and Entertainment Committee
“If you look at the scope of the National Games, they are bigger than the Olympic Games,” Bach is reported to have told local media. “You have many world-class sports facilities, you have a sports-loving public, you have all the ingredients it needs. So one day I think it would be very good to be a candidate for the Olympic Games.”
Bach also met with Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee and members of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong. During the meeting he encouraged officials to keep hosting international sports events to gain the “necessary experience on the organisational side”.
A key event in preparing a 2036 bid will be the Association of National Olympic Committees meeting in December 2026. Bach is reported to be supportive of efforts by the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong to host the meeting in the city.
China’s 15th National Games is being co-hosted by three regions – Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong – for the first time with more than 400 events across 34 sports taking place from November 9 to 21.
The success of this tri-region organisational model, combined with venues, transport and infrastructure links, is viewed as crucial by bodies such as the Hong Kong’s Olympics Committee, the Sports Federation, the Our Hong Kong Foundation think tank and campaigners such as Olympian Rachael Kininmonth.
Kininmonth, who competed in rowing for Australia at the 2000 Games in Sydney, leads the 2036 Working Group and co-chairs the Australian Chamber of Commerce’s sports, entertainment and cultural events committee, said the National Games showed how GBA cities should now set their sights higher with a bid for 2036. She welcomed the endorsements from Bach and local Olympic committee leaders but urged the Hong Kong government “start the process”.
“Informal dialogue is the first step. We need a seat at the table… Hong Kong needs to act,” Kininmonth told MIX.
Brett Free, co-chairs the AustCham committee, said President Xi’s comments and those of Thomas Bach “bodes well for our political leaders to seize the opportunity of the National Games’ TeamHK/GBA approach to put our hands up at a potential host for the 2036 Olympics”.
Backgrounder… HK-GBA urged to pursue 2036 Olympics
“Comments by President Xi about the role of the GBA in the context of staging the National Games, coupled with Bach’s very positive assessment on the suitability of a HK-GBA Olympic bid are absolutely music to our ears,” Free told MIX.
“If HKSAR government officials were looking for signs of what to do, you can’t get much better than these highly public endorsements by President Xi and Thomas Bach,” he said.
“Now is the time for the HKSAR to take the lead and seek Central Government approval to lead a bid for the 2036 Olympic Games, and also to cast the net much wider and more aggressively in bidding for other large-scale events that can showcase the combined advantages of the HK-GBA nexus.”
If GBA cities get the go-ahead to launch a joint bid, they are likely to be in a field of about 10 competitors with confirmed and potential bids from Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
Main image… President Xi Jinping flanked by IOC president Kirsty Coventry and former IOC president Thomas Bach. Picture source: State Council Information Office
