Nigeria has joined the fray as a potential bidder for the 2022 Summer Youth Olympics Games(YOG).
Abuja, the capital of Nigeria was presented at the Sport Accord Summit, which kicked off yesterday in Bangkok as one of the African cities in the race to host the Youth Olympics.
Tunisia and Senegal are the two other African countries in contention.
The actual bidding process had been scheduled to run between July and October. No African country had ever won the hosting right.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) members voted in favour of a proposal to “proactively” seek an African host of the event at their Session in Pyeongchang in February.
IOC President, Thomas Bach said afterwards that he hoped the event could pave the way towards a Summer Olympic Games in Africa in either 2032 or 2036.
The IOC also said last month that other countries had expressed interest, but did not say who.
“We had three working sessions, which were video conferences, with [Tunis in] Tunisia, with Senegal and with Abuja in Nigeria,” Christophe Dubi, the IOC executive director for the Olympic Games, told insidethegames during the ongoing SportAccord Summit.
Cape Town in South Africa came closest when reaching the candidature stage of the 2004 edition, an event ultimately awarded to Athens.
Tunis hosted the 2005 World Handball Championships, while Nigeria is one of a number of African countries mooted as a potential host of the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
Buenos Aires is due to host the third Summer YOG in October to follow the first two editions in Singapore and Nanjing in 2010 and 2014 respectively.
-Sun
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