Australian Olympic Committee CEO Matt Carroll believes the recently confirmed 2023 Brisbane Games will “supercharge” sport in Australia.
Joining SEN 1170 Mornings, Carroll said he expects the Games to “bring the community together” through the vessel of sport.
“It’s an opportunity to really supercharge sport,” Carroll said.
“The Prime Minister last night, the Premier and the sports minister were all talking about the opportunity sport can bring the country.
“Apart from the Games themselves in 2032 - and the jobs and opportunity they create - this 10-year run already has a Women’s FIFA World Cup, a FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup and there’s an opportunity for a Rugby World Cup.
“There’s about 30 international events that can supercharge the economy, tourism, infrastructure and things of that nature.
“But more importantly it’s the opportunity it brings to the next generation of Australians.
“The eight year olds of today, will be 18 in 2032, and they’ll have the opportunity to be Olympians and work in other fields that go towards the games.
“We want to use the power of sport to bring the community back together.”
With Brisbane set to become the third Australian city to hold the games – following Melbourne 1956 and Sydney 2000 – Carroll was asked how the case was made to the IOC for the River City become host.
“It’s a different process,” Carroll explained.
“Cities don’t bid against themselves, the way the IOC do it is they have a dialogue with candidate cities.
“We continued to do the work, John Coates led the team in 2020, we started the work in 2019.
“2020 we kept working hard with international federations, putting together a persuasive case and a master plan.
“Between January of this year through to May, it’s been presentations to what they call the ‘Future Host Commission’.
“They didn’t come and visit, but they did three days of virtual meetings going into details regarding sustainability, support for indigenous communities, all the way through to venues and transport plans, hospitality and media centres.
“It became a very compelling argument.”
While Carroll knows Brisbane put forward a compelling argument, he believes Australia as a whole had a big part to play.
“Australia brings certainty,” Carroll said.
“We know how to put on a major event. We know how to make sure it works.
“We know how to create legacy and we know how to enhance the major events for the next city that comes after us.”
Brisbane will host the 2032 Olympics after the Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028) Games.
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