On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee approved the recommendation of its executive board to choose the Australian city of Brisbane as the host city for the 2032 summer Olympics.
Hundreds of people gathered along the river-side South Bank to watch the IOC meeting on big screens and cheered as Brisbane became the third Australian city to host the Games after Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in 2000.
“It’s a historic day not just for Brisbane and Queensland, but for the entire country,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Reuters.
“Only global cities can secure the Olympic Games – so this is fitting recognition for Brisbane’s standing across our region and the world.”
As the preferred host, the state capital of Queensland was chosen in February and received the approval of the executive board last month. After the United States, Australia now becomes the only country to host three different Summer Olympic Games in three different cities.
In addition to Indonesia and Hungary’s Budapest, several cities and countries had expressed interest to hold the 2032 Games, including China, the city of Doha in Qatar and the Ruhr region in Germany. As part of an innovative process adopted by the IOC in February, in which candidates are not openly pitted against each other, Brisbane had already moved ahead of any rival as the “preferred host”.
The 2020 Olympics will be held in Tokyo this week, and the 2024 Olympics will be held in Paris. The 2028 summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles.
