That, actually, is the Emirate's plan. “We are concerned about the climate. On the other hand, nothing will stop us. But still, priority is the athlete,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, was quoted as saying in The National.
It's not Emiratis Mohammed is worried about. They can take the heat. They can even use it to a competitive advantage (and why not, given the way Scandinavians use Arctic conditions to their advantage in the winter Olympics?) But heat is still the main issue for everyone else.
“The Olympics are a dream for us,” Mohammed said. “It would be a great pleasure and dream for us to have the Games here. It is very good news that people talk about it. But we first have to study what we can offer. I am not going to say 2020 is too early. But we have to do our studies first.”
Mohammed made his case during the 8th Annual SportAccord International Convention in Dubai on April 27, 2010. The convention is the biggest sports networking event in the world that includes series of meetings and events held exclusively for participating sports federations and councils. Hein Verbruggen, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC, were lending Mohammed one or both of their ears during the conference.
It's not as if the calendar couldn't be jiggered to get around the heat of July and August. At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, which seven Arab nations boycotted over the 1956 Arab-Israeli war over Sinai, the games were moved to November to coincide with Australia's down-under summer. The Sydney games 10 years ago were held in September.
Not that a check of the Weather in Dubai is reassuring. It's late April and it's already hotter than in Florida: highs in the mid to upper 90s. Between December and March, average high temperatures fall slightly to between 77 and 95, about where Chicago's and New York's temperatures would be in high summer.
And not far from Dubai, Qatar, which has already hosted the Asian Games, is making a bid for the 2022 soccer World Cup. Sooner or later, the soccer federation and the International Olympic Committee are going to have to bite the bullet, or bite something, and grant one of these two mega-events to an Arab nation. Or at least a nation in the Middle East. Or two.
I vote for the Jerusalem Olympics of 2020, co-hosted by Israel and Palestine. Talk about a coup. I'd like to see Barack President Obama lobby for those games.