Saudi Arabia’s Summer Olympics could take place in WINTER – with the Gulf state considering bidding to host the Games in 2036, after winning the World Cup.

The favorite to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee has opened the door to a summer Games being held in Saudi Arabia in winter.

The Gulf state is considering bidding to host the 2036 Olympics, after winning the World Cup in 2034.

And Juan Antonio Samaranch, who is challenging Britain’s Lord Coe to replace IOC boss Thomas Bach, is in favor of the idea of ​​organizing the Games in the Middle East for the first time.

Asked directly by Mail Sport if he could imagine Saudi Arabia as the future host of the Olympic Games, the Spaniard replied: “If I am true to my statement that universality is the centerpiece of what we do, then we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that within the current policy framework. Under these circumstances, a significant part of the world’s population cannot even dream of hosting the Olympic Games.

“This is a significant part of Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Southern Europe and a significant part of Central America.

“We must therefore ensure that all these regions of the world have the opportunity to compete fairly to organize the Olympic Games.”

The Summer Olympics have not been held beyond October since Melbourne 1956, which ran from November 22 to December 8.

But Samaranch insists he would have no problem moving the traditional Games dates to accommodate the climate if Saudi Arabia becomes host, just as FIFA is doing with the World Cup in 2034.

“I don’t see the possibility of the weather adapting to our calendar, so we will have to adapt the calendar to our weather,” he said.

The manifestos of the seven candidates for the IOC presidency were launched on Thursday ahead of the March elections.

As the current IOC vice president, Samaranch – whose father was president from 1980 to 2001 – is considered Coe’s biggest rival for the position.

“I’m not going to define him as a rival, but I can call him an amazing friend for many, many years,” Samaranch said of Coe. “I wish him the best. She is an extraordinary person, rounded and very impressive.

“I’m sure he will present some very compelling proposals, some of them might be on the same wavelength, and many of them will be on opposing ideas.”

One area where Samaranch has an opposing idea to Coe is prize money for athletes.

Coe suggested all Olympic medalists should receive a financial reward, after giving $50,000 to track and field gold medalists at Paris 2024 in his capacity as president of World Athletics.

But Samaranch said: “I have a very strong opinion on this. Ninety percent of the money from the Olympic Games is redistributed to the national Olympic committees, international federations and the base of the pyramid.

Taking this money to reward Olympic champions, the icing on the cake, is redundant.

“They are Olympic athletes, they receive many rewards, social and financial, thanks to their sponsors and their national Olympic committees. There is a bit of redundancy in giving them an additional prize.

“I would prefer to use this money and distribute it among all Olympians and non-Olympians, to make the sports world as flat as possible. We don’t just want to reward those who are already at the top.

Samaranch shares Coe’s view that the IOC should “take the lead” in “protecting the integrity of women’s sport,” by proposing a robust transgender policy for all Olympic sports.

However, he doesn’t believe the IOC did anything wrong in Paris, when Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were allowed to win gold in women’s boxing, despite being disqualified from last year’s World Championships for failing gender eligibility tests.

“In boxing, these women have always competed as women and we had to defend their right to participate in the Olympic Games as they had in previous Olympic Games,” he added. “There was no single evidence that they shouldn’t do it.

“We had to focus heavily on trying to protect them from the global harassment they were subjected to. This is unfair and demonstrates our commitment to standing up for people with differences.