LEADERS of the world’s Olympic community will hold their annual assembly in Hong Kong next December in a move seen as an opportunity to show the movement’s power brokers the Greater Bay Area’s potential to host the 2036 Games.
The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) has confirmed that its General Assembly will be held at AsiaWorld-Expo, December 7-10, 2026, with 1,200 delegates expected to attend.
The ANOC represents 206 National Olympic Committees, international sports federations and associated organisations.
Campaigners for Hong Kong-Greater Bay Area (HK-GBA) to make a joint bid for the 2036 Summer Olympic Games see the 2026 ANOC meeting as the most important step yet following the GBA’s hosting of the recent China National Games.
Hong Kong-based Olympian Rachael Kininmonth, who represented Australia in rowing in the 2000 Sydney Games and is on the committee of the 2036 Working Group, said the ANOC’s decision was “both an honour and a strategic opportunity”.
Kininmonth said the meeting creates a rare reversal of roles in Olympic diplomacy. “For the 2036 Working Group, the timing is particularly significant. Rather than the region needing to take its case to the world, the global Olympic community will come to Hong Kong – offering an unparalleled opportunity to showcase, in situ, the scale, capability and ambition of the Greater Bay Area,” she told MIX.
For the 2036 Working Group, the timing is particularly significant. Rather than the region needing to take its case to the world, the global Olympic community will come to Hong Kong – offering an unparalleled opportunity to showcase, in situ, the scale, capability and ambition of the Greater Bay Area
– Rachael Kininmonth, Olympian and 2036 Working Group committee member
She emphasised the ANOC meeting’s unique value is that Olympic leaders would personally experience a region with credible infrastructure to bid for the 2036 Games. “This gathering allows Hong Kong and the GBA to present to ANOC delegates a region of 86 million people with world-class infrastructure, proven delivery capability and a unique ‘One Country, Two Systems’ model that enables cross-boundary collaboration at scale.”
Kininmonth further highlighted the experience gained from recent mega events in the region. “With China’s successful hosting of the 2008 Summer and 2022 Winter Olympic Games, and the success of the 15th National Games across Hong Kong and the GBA involving more than 26,000 athletes, the region has clearly demonstrated its ability to deliver complex, multi-city sporting events.”
More… National Games embolden GBA Olympic vision
She said HK-GBA also aligned with the priorities of the International Olympic Committee, the movement’s most powerful organisation. “Hosting the ANOC General Assembly provides a timely and powerful platform to highlight how the GBA aligns with the IOC’s core priorities: sustainable infrastructure, legacy planning and grassroots sport – and to introduce the international Olympic community to a compelling future host region that has cost neutral capability.”
The Assembly comes as support for a 2036 bid gains ground within Hong Kong’s business community, particularly through the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AustCham) and the recently formed AustCham sports, entertainment and cultural events committee, which is co‑chaired by Kininmonth and is actively campaigning for the Hong Kong SAR Government to back a formal bid.
The committee wants authorities to leverage Hong Kong’s success in staging major sports and entertainment events, including the Rugby Sevens, large‑scale concerts at Kai Tak Sports Stadium and the city’s co-hosting of the China National Games with other cities across the GBA.
China has already hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, followed by the Winter Games in 2022. But former IOC president Thomas Bach, said on the sidelines of events in Budapest to mark the 130th anniversary of the Hungarian Olympic Committee that the door is open for China to host another Olympics.
“Hosting the Olympic Games once does not mean that such a huge country, with the sporting power of China, cannot host them again, whether Summer Games, Winter Games or Youth Olympic Games,” Bach is quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying.
“Everyone loves to come to China for major events. The key is to carefully assess what best fits the long-term development plan of a city, a region and sport in China, and then make a decision accordingly.”
Main picture… AI-generated image symbolising the Olympic Rings over the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge – one of the GBA’s infrastructure links
