Without extra lead time, IOC would be ‘pretty nervous’ about Brisbane 2032

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach says the organisation would have been “pretty nervous” about Brisbane’s preparations for the 2032 Games had the city been given hosting rights under the previous selection process.

Speaking from the IOC’s Switzerland headquarters on Friday night (AEST), Bach suggested Brisbane’s 11-year runway to hosting the Games had saved the city’s blushes.

Thomas Back (right) with Brisbane 2032 chief executive Andrew Liveris.Credit: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

“[The previous host selection model would have selected] Brisbane seven years before,” he said.

“Then, three years in means four years before the Games, so then we would be pretty nervous.”

Under the previous process, the host city for 2032 would have been decided next year. Given Brisbane was still ahead of that traditional lead time, Bach said he had no concerns about its readiness.

“The discussions which happened, and are happening, in Brisbane are happening at a time where we can still watch it in a pretty relaxed way,” he said.

“We have eight years to go.”

The Queensland government has come under fire for going back to the drawing board three years in, by tearing up plans to rebuild the Gabba as the main Olympic stadium.

Premier Steven Miles appointed former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk to conduct a venues review, which ultimately recommended a new stadium be built at Victoria Park.

But Miles rejected that finding and instead chose to follow Australian Olympic supremo John Coates’s advice and convert the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan into a temporary Olympic stadium.

That approach seemed to get the Bach tick of approval on Friday night.

“It’s all happening in the right way,” he said.

“There are discussions, these discussions are turning around our Olympic agenda there and the conditions are very clear.

“It’s first about existing venues and then if that is not possible about temporary venues, there are no minimum requirements for any stadia capacity.

“The only requirement that we have there is to ensure a fair competition and a great experience for the athletes and spectators.”

Of more immediate concern to Bach was the upcoming Paris Olympics, which will begin in July.

Bach said the IOC was mindful of security concerns, but also confident geopolitical fissures – namely the Gaza conflict – would not manifest among competitors at Paris 2024.

“We take this task more as an encouragement for our mission, which is now since [modern Olympics founder Pierre] de Coubertin – since the very first Olympic Games – to bring the people together,” he said.

“In particular when they’re not together in politics or economy, when they are in conflict, the more important it is to have this link and to give this symbol of hope.

“At this moment, all indicators there are showing that, indeed, the whole world wants to participate and the athletes who are coming there will compete in full respect of the Olympic Charter and in full respect of this unifying mission of the Olympic Games.”

Both Israel and Palestine will compete in Paris.

“In sport, we have a solution which international politics is striving for – everybody in politics is speaking about the two-state solution and the peaceful coexistence of these two states, an Israeli state and a Palestinian state,” Bach said.

“In the Olympic movement, we have this peaceful coexistence for 30 years.”

Still, Bach acknowledged the situation presented a major security risk for French authorities.

“Like any big event in our world, unfortunately, the Olympic Games have always had to take security into account not only since today, but since 1972,” he said, referring to the Munich Games, at which there was a deadly terrorist attack against the Israeli team.

“...We have full confidence in the French authorities who are working in a very meticulous in a very professional way and have been working through all stages of the preparation there with the organising committee on all the security matters.”