Copenhagen to bid for 2030 Youth Olympics and study possible run at 2036 Olympic Games in Denmark

Mia Nyegaard, Copenhagen’s culture and leisure city councilor, is proposing a low-cost 2036 Olympic Games in the Danish capital (Photo: Radikale Venstre Party)

Copenhagen has moved forward on a 2022 proposal by allocating a budget to study a possible 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games and to submit a bid to host the 2030 Youth Olympic Games.

The 2025 municipal budget for Denmark’s capital was released Monday and includes 500,000 krone (USD $74,000) to accomplish these goals according to Copenhagen Culture and Leisure Mayor Mia Nyegaard.

“A few years ago, I launched the vision of bringing the smallest and most sustainable Olympics ever to Denmark. We are now moving on to investigate what it will require, and it will be really exciting to follow”, Nyegaard said in a press release by the municipality.

Now the city has committed to “a preliminary study of holding the Olympics and an actual bid for the Youth Olympics in Copenhagen,” a statement on the city website said.

Among early Olympics proposals are plans to create an Olympic Village on cruise ships in Copenhagen Harbor and to build a temporary Olympic stadium. Officials have admitted that securing federal funds to cover costs will be a challenge.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has no set timetable for awarding host city contracts instead facilitating a confidential ongoing dialogue process with interested parties and only naming a preferred candidate if and when a match is found. Dakar in Senegal is set to host the 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) after the its original 2022 edition was postponed due to the COVID pandemic.

City politician considers sustainable Copenhagen 2036 Olympic bid on a small budget

It’s not clear how many nations might be pursuing the 2030 YOG but India’s sport minister confirmed last week that the nation has submitted a bid to host those Games along with intentions to stage the 2036 Olympics. Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that it was preparing a YOG bid a year ago and Cambodia expressed interest after the successful Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Phnom Penh in 2023.

The race to host the next available Summer Games in 2036 has become crowded with some nations already lining up for 2040. Istanbul in Türkiye, India, Egypt, Cape Town in South Africa, Santiago in Chile, Seoul in South Korea, Budapest in Hungary. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have shown interest in the earlier edition. Germany, Poland and United Kingdom have discussed bidding for the latter.

The 2036 Games preferred candidate could be named as early as next year according to IOC officials, with an election in 2026.

Los Angeles is set to stage the Olympics in 2028 and will hand over the flag to Brisbane, Australia for the 2032 edition.

Copenhagen, one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, is known for its active and sports-minded population. The city hosts an annual marathon and open water swimming competition, in 2011 staged the Cycling Road World Championships and a leg of the Tour de France was set in Copenhagen in 2022. Last year the Badminton World Championships was staged in the capital.  With a population of just over 5 million citizens, nearly half surrounding the Copenhagen metropolitan area, Denmark has never bid for or hosted an Olympic Games.

Denmark won two gold medals among at total of nine at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The nation had similar results at the Paralympics that closed on Sunday by earning two gold and a total of ten medals.

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