South Africa has joined India and Qatar, as well as four other countries in the race to host the 2036 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed.

Other countries interested in hosting the event in 2035 are Germany, South Korea, Hungary and Turkey.

The IOC has given interested parties up to the end of this month to lodge a formal bid and enter a dialogue process which will culminate in a final vote by IOC members in 2029.

In 2010, South Africa became the first and only African country to host the World Cup, an event that showed the world that the country has the infrastructure needed to host global sports competition.

It faces stiff challenge from India, which has long been seen a front-runner, with Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat, the home state of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, already announced as hosts of the 2030 Commonwealth Games.

Qatar launched unsuccessful bids to host both the 2016 and 2020 Games, losing out to Rio and Tokyo respectively. It intends to rely heavily on infrastructure created for its successful 2022 hosting of the football World Cup.

Munich won the right to bid on behalf of Germany following a vote by the country’s sports authority, the DOSB, late last month. Other formal bidders include South Africa, South Korea, Hungary and Turkey.

Following the closure of the initial bidding process, interested parties will make virtual presentations and undergo feasibility studies before the IOC executive board selects an initial shortlist.

South Korea and Germany are the only countries on the current list who have previously hosted the Games. Seoul staged the 1988 summer edition, while Berlin and Munich did so in 1936 and 1972.

An Indonesian bid to host the Games in Nusantara was rejected by the IOC after the country refused to permit Israeli athletes to compete at the World Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta in 2025. (Guardian)

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