South Africa Considers 2020 Olympic Bid

South Africa may have become the first World Cup hosts to be eliminated after the first round but that does not appear to have dampened enthusiasm for the tournament there.

In fact, so buoyed is President Jacob Zuma by the way the event is going, he said on Thursday that the success of the World Cup should be used as the springboard for a bid to host the Olympics in 2020.

“We have got the facilities,” said Zuma. “Those who take decisions have seen how South Africa is. I’m sure we could do it.”

Zuma’s comments are a clear sign that Bafana Bafana’s exit has not diminished in any way the country’s huge pride at staging the tournament.

As one newspaper columnist put it,: “No one has beaten our record as a small nation hosting the biggest World Cup.”

So could a South African city stage the Olympics?

With its stunning location at the foot of Table Mountain, Cape Town would be the obvious candidate. The city bid for the 2004 Games but was well beaten by Athens.

Johannesburg’s Soccer City would also make a magnificent Olympic stadium but altitude would be a factor.

Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium has already got a running track and the city on the Indian Ocean is already talking about a bid.

For the Olympic movement, taking the Games to Africa for the first time would be an even bigger statement than Fifa’s decision to award the World Cup to the continent after a wait of 80 years.

In many ways, the two events are on a similar scale now. However, the Olympic pressure is felt by one city alone whereas a World Cup is spread over a number of host cities.

And while the World Cup involves 64 matches and an intense group phase with three or four matches every day, the Olympic Games involves a far greater logistical challenge, with 26 simultaneous world championships taking place over a much shorter period – just 16 days.

Any potential host city would need a range of world-class facilities, not just one or two football or rugby stadiums. It would also need to accommodate more than 10,000 athletes and the same number of media, with all the strain those figures put on transport and security.

But taking the Olympics to Africa – and realistically South Africa is the only country that could host the Games – would send such a strong message to the continent.

The International Olympic Committee has already shown it is not afraid of making bold decisions, as it demonstrated by taking the summer Games to Beijing in 2008 and to South America for the first time with Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

And IOC President Jacques Rogge said last week that he would love to have a credible African candidate for the next Olympics, namely 2020.

South Africa certainly has the resources and the will to put on the Games – and would do a terrific job if the warmth of the people is anything to go by.

The success of African athletes – particularly in middle and long distance running – makes it even harder to ignore calls to take the Games to this continent.

Should that dream become a reality and England win the right to host the World Cup in 2018, it raises the prospect of just three countries – Britain, Brazil and South Africa – dominating the next decade’s showpiece sporting events.

And that would represent not only a significant change in the sporting landscape but a major geopolitical and sporting shift, too.