JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s National Olympic Committee plans to launch a bid to host the summer Olympics in 2036 after losing out this week to a bid by Brisbane to hold the 2032 Games, the head of the committee said.
The Southeast Asian country had been a contender to host the 2032 Games, alongside Hungary’s capital Budapest, China, Qatar’s Doha and Germany’s Ruhr valley region among others.
“We will not back down and will continue to fight for the 2036 Olympics,” Raja Sapta Oktohari, the chief of Indonesia’s committee, said in a statement.
Indonesia, which is the world’s fourth most populous country with more than 270 million people, is trying to become only the fourth Asian country to host the Games after Japan, China and South Korea.
Southeast Asia’s biggest country launched its 2032 bid after successfully hosting the 2018 Asian Games, which involved some 13,000 athletes from 45 national Olympic committees.
“We will work harder and do everything we can with patience to achieve our dream of hosting the Olympics,” said Raja.
Gatot Dewa Broto, an official at Indonesia’s sports ministry, said the country was fully behind the new bid, adding that after hosting the Asian Games the infrastructure for the Olympics is “totally ready”.
Tokyo begins hosting the postponed 2020 Olympics this week and Paris will stage the 2024 Games. Los Angeles has been awarded the 2028 summer Olympics.
(Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Stanley Widianto; Editing by Ed Davies and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
