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Future of global sport, Commonwealth Games in focus during IOC Auckland summit
Alex Chapman • May 19th, 2026 4:22 pm
International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry (centre) during an official pōwhiri and cultural welcome at Orakei Marae | Photo: Photosport
The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) will use a visit from two leading partners to discuss how Aotearoa could host the Commonwealth Games, while also exploring sport’s role in wider social issues.
International Olympic Committee boss Kirsty Coventry is in Auckland this week for the Oceania National Olympic Committee’s Annual General Assembly.
And while she has a long to-do list in her short stint on these shores, so far, Coventry likes what she’s seen and heard.
“The organisation (ONOC) has really come together to relook at different parts of their constitution and where they want to see Oceania moving forward and what that looks like. And I’m here to support that wholeheartedly and looking forward to the conversations that are going to happen.”
While Coventry’s unlikely to be part of them, among those possible discussions could involve the Commonwealth Games being held in New Zealand in 2034, after the NZOC last year lodged an expression of interest to host the event.
With members of the Commonwealth Sport also in Auckland this week — including CEO and kiwi Katie Sadleir — NZOC President Liz Dawson hopes discussions can continue.
However, she does not expect any decisions to be made soon.
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“The Commonwealth sport organisation is concentrating on Glasgow, which is 60-something days away, and then the Youth Games in Malta next year, and then obviously Ahmedabad in India in 2030. So that’s their runway.
“Sure, we’ll have some conversations, but we will be ready to go when they’re ready to have the more in-depth discussions around what it means and what it could look like.
“And of course, they’ve changed their model now, working more closely with potential hosts about what our Games could look like.”
Those discussions would include which sports are featured, where events could be staged, the facilities used or needed to be built, and, of course, the overall cost.
Despite being scaled back and largely relying on existing infrastructure from the 2014 Games, the projected cost of this year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games is still estimated at more than $340 million NZD.
Four years ago, Birmingham, which was praised for being one of the most sustainable multi-sport events in history, still cost around $1.6 billion NZD.
Dawson also acknowledged that the ONOC’s work extends beyond hosting major events and winning medals.
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“We work closely on a number of themes, not only sports programmes.
“But when we talk about gender equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the region — particularly around safe sport and safeguarding in sport — gender-based violence is not a statistic that we as a region should be proud of.
“So we work on those challenges together and really that is the power of sport: to bring us together and create opportunities for young women and young men to better their lives through sport.”
Coventry also conceded there are global challenges in keeping sport relevant.
The IOC launched its ‘Fit For The Future’ strategy last June and is currently reviewing the overall Olympic programme, including the size and number of events.
2028 Summer Olympics will feature 351 medal events across 36 sports, while the Brisbane Games four years later are expected to include fewer.
“I don’t think it’s about being too big. I just think that, in order to remain relevant, we need to ensure we have a relevant programme — one that speaks to different people across the globe,” Coventry said.
“I think that’s our hardest challenge. When we look at the programme, we don’t want it to be European-centric, Oceania-centric or African-centric. It really needs to represent all of us globally.
“We also need to ensure we have sports, events and disciplines that are well represented across that board.
“Obviously we want to look at the complexity of the Games, but we also want to look at the relevance of the sports we have on the programme.”
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