Will Africa Play Host to 2020 Olympics?

As soon as Rio de Janeiro was selected as the first South American host for an Olympic Games, in 2016, speculation began - in this blog and elsewhere - that an African nation could be in line to play host to the 2020 Olympics. Four years before the 2020 host is selected, several African countries are already gearing up to become the first nation on that continent to hold an Olympic Games. Rabat, Morocco will definitely make a bid for the 2020 Games. It's been reported that Egypt will also apply. But the very, very early African front-runner is South Africa.

Once a pariah country during its apartheid era, South African athletes were banned from several Olympic Games. A free South Africa, however, is very much a part of the family of athletic nations.

During the past 15 years, South Africa has played host to major world events in sports such as cricket and rugby. Next year the nation will play host to the FIFA World Cup, the world's biggest football (that's soccer, to us Americans) event.

Significantly, the International Olympic Committee will hold its 2011 general congress in Durban, South Africa. This will be a significant congress, in which the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics will be announced. This will provide South Africa with plenty of exposure on the world stage, and give that country's officials an excellent opportunity to give IOC delegates a first-hand look at what South Africa has to offer.

These and perhaps other African nations will have to compete with many other countries for the 2020 Games - the U.S., certainly, will make a bid, after failing to land the 2016 Games - but the IOC will no doubt feel great pressure to hold the Olympics on a continent which has provided track and field, and other sports, with many outstanding champions.