‘Global shift’ as Olympics set up shop in Asia
Shanghai, China: When the cauldron ignites in Pyeongchang on February 9, it will open a sequence of three Olympic Games in Asia over the next four years — highlighting the region's growing clout, and also the declining interest among Western powers in holding the multi-billion dollar events.
After next month's Winter Games in South Korea, Tokyo will take centre stage in 2020 and Beijing will organise the 2022 Winter Olympics — becoming the first city to hold both a Winter and Summer Games.
South Korea (Seoul 1988), Japan (Tokyo 1964, Sapporo 1972, Nagano 1998) and China (Beijing 2008) have all hosted Olympics before, but clearly the appetite remains strong.
Outside the region, enthusiasm is patchier — a fact that was underlined when Rome, Hamburg and Budapest all withdrew from the running to hold the 2024 Summer Games.
Last September, 2024 hopeful Los Angeles lost out to Paris but was instead awarded 2028, four years ahead of the normal schedule — a move perceived as the International Olympic Committee locking in a high-profile bidder while it still could.
Beijing-based Mark Dreyer, an expert on China's sports industry, said Asia's Olympic hat-trick signals "a global shift of power".
"If we had three consecutive Olympics in the West, people would not say it was so remarkable," Dreyer, founder of the China Sports Insider website, said. "But the fact that it is in Asia — these are the countries that are able to bid for these events because they cost a hell of a lot of money and often lose a hell of a lot of money."
The 2008 Olympics were a coming-out party for China after Beijing saw off rival bids from Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka in Japan.
