India needs to have sports ecosystem capacity to be considered for 2036 Olympics: Polish expert

“If we only focus on having the legal grounding for the reform, it’s not going to magically happen. What is important is the implementation, providing the education, and the support,” Botwina said, emphasising that resistance to change and lack of trained personnel were common challenges globally.

Botwina said that strong governance structures were essential for building a credible sports ecosystem. “India is bidding for the 2036 Olympic Games, which is a very large endeavour, and to be considered for such an event… you have to have this capacity, which is a sport ecosystem capacity. It is not a very narrow area that we are considering, but it is rather broad,” Botwina said.

He outlined how countries across Europe, Australia and Canada have responded to governance challenges through different governance frameworks and reforms.

“In many countries, this pressure materialised in bringing something that is called codes of good governance,” he said, adding that in some cases, “governance reforms were also linked to education and support for sport federations.”

Speaking at the inaugural session of the conference on Tuesday, International Olympic Academy (IOA) Director Dr Makis Asimakopoulos stressed on thinking bigger than just the Olympic Games in 2036. “You need to create a vision such as Gujarat 2050, think bigger and use the Games as a vehicle to get there and not the Games as the final destination.”

Wolfgang Maennig, Chair of Economic Policy at the University of Hamburg, spoke on corruption in sport from an economic and historical point of view. He spoke about the instances of corruption from the ancient Olympic Games to those in recent mega sporting events. Maennig said, “Corruption has affected multiple stages of sport, including bidding processes, officiation, and commercial contracts.”

He cited cases from Olympic host cities such as Salt Lake City, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. He said that even when corruption got uncovered years later, it continued to cast a shadow over Games which were otherwise successful. He said that while the majority of athletes and officials acted ethically, a small number of corrupt practices were sufficient to damage public trust and national reputation.

The four-day conference organised by the BCORE Research Centre in collaboration with Rashtriya Raksha University will focus on education, research and governance for a sustainable Olympic ecosystem. It converges academicians, policymakers, and sport administrators to discuss governance, policy and anti-doping issues in Olympic sport.

(Nishant Bal is an intern at the Ahmedabad office of The Indian Express)