Mayor to Poll Kazan on 2024 Olympic Bid

Kazan’s Mayor Ilsur Metshin promised to conduct a city-wide opinion poll on whether the city should bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

R-Sport reports that Russian Olympic Committee chief Alexander Zhukov proposed the idea in the run-up to the World University Games which the city hosted from 6-17 July, with the logic that the two events are of similar scales and formats.

Kazan has widely received positive feedback for its execution of event with over 10,000 athletes participating in 27 sports.

The Mayor emphasised the importance in the people’s cooperation and support of any future sports events and said: “It is the most serious of issues and requires a thorough work-through by the leaders of the country and the (Tatarstan) republic. We also need to ask the advice of the people. I want to conduct a survey to find out what our citizens want, what kind of party they want to see.

“Only having worked with them can we find a solution. If such a decision (to bid for the Games) is taken, we will be ready to push for this too,” Metshin added.

Regarding the comparison between the World University Games and Summer Olympics, the Mayor said: “by the quantity of sports and of participants and the burden on hotels and the airport, our Universiade differs in no way from the London Olympics for us, the organizers. Time will tell.”