Munich will get three cracks at winning the bid.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation has selected Munich as the country’s candidate city to bid for a future edition of the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games which means 2036, 2040 or 2044. The selection of Munich probably saved the International Olympic Committee some headaches as people in Berlin were heavily pushing for a 2036 Olympics bid to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Hitler-Berlin Games. Munich, of course, has its own history of Olympics tragedy with the 1972 massacre of nine Israeli athletes and two coaches. Berlin would have been problematic as how do you celebrate that Olympics’ anniversary? You can’t although Berlin backers claimed that granting Berlin the 2036 Games would be a teachable moment. The event legitimized Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich on the global stage.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation didn’t even have to consider Berlin as an election on September 20th swept the socialist Left Party into power and the party had no interest in hosting an Olympics. The 2036 debate on the bid had been taking place for years. The outgoing Mayor Kai Wegner, who pulled the bid on September 24th once told the Associated Press that history is history. “I believe that the Games of 2036, regardless of where they take place, will also focus on the Nazi Games of 1936. That is part of history and will be given attention. I must tell you that I am proud to be the mayor of a city that has changed over the past 100 years; that no longer tolerates dictatorship, exclusion or mass violence, but instead, Berlin is now a cosmopolitan and international metropolis, a colorful and diverse city.” Munich is now in the running with a myriad of other markets for a Summer Olympics whether it is in 2036, 2040 or 2044.
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