Durban named South Africa’s preferred city for 2036 and 2040 Olympic bids

South Africa on Thursday announced the east coast city of Durban as its preferred candidate to host the 2036 or 2040 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The selection was revealed by the South African Olympic committee’s acting president, Lwandile Simelane.

Durban is South Africa’s third biggest city and was chosen ahead of Johannesburg and Cape Town, both of which had also been under consideration. The city was first suggested as an Olympic host more than a decade ago following South Africa’s staging of the 2010 World Cup, the first in Africa. At that time an official Olympic bid did not materialise, largely because of concerns over costs. Officials did not provide any cost estimates when the preferred-candidate announcement was made on Thursday.

If a Durban-led bid succeeds it would result in the Games being the first held in Africa. Simelane said Durban would be the main candidate city for her country's bid, but it would probably be a "multi-city bid" that would propose some events are held in other cities.

Officials said on Thursday they were not yet able to provide any estimates regarding how much it might cost South Africa to stage the Olympics if its bid was successful.

South Africa is one of seven countries that have indicated they are bidding for the 2036 Games. The others are India, Qatar, South Korea, Germany, Hungary and Turkey.

The next formal steps in the process are defined by the International Olympic Committee: the IOC gave 31 October as the deadline for national Olympic committees to formally declare their interest in bidding for those Games, and the host city for 2036 will be chosen by the IOC in mid-2029.