What if Wakanda Hosted The Summer Olympics?

During the Infinity War movie, Okoye mentions the possibility of Wakanda hosting an Olympic Games. There is no doubt that the International Olympic Committee would take this bid very seriously if Wakanda did submit an application, but there are some issues they will face as a host country. It's a country with a single Golden City at it's center, surrounded by tribal lands. If they are going to have the land and resources to undertake this mega construction project, they will require some degree of tribal support, if not unanimous approval. The King is going to have trouble pushing this project forward in the face of a strong united opposition.

Throughout Black Panther, we see that some of their tribes have a very negative opinion of the outside world (especially the mountain people). Just because the King wants to host the Olympics, doesn't mean the people who control most of the map will all agree with him on this. It's unlikely that any of the tribes want thousands of foreigners staying in their ancestral lands. Wakanda has been closed to the outside world for generations, so it's unlikely that they have the hotel capacity to required to host that many visitors. They will have to re-purpose other buildings to hold foreigners.

Since no African country has ever hosted an Olympics, we don't quite know how the hippopotamus or other dangerous animals would affect some of the water sports like rowing. The athletes would need to be protected against crocodiles and hippos. These are dangerous, aggressive, territorial animals who regularly kill people. It's safe to assume the lakes and rivers in and around Wakanda are saturated with deadly wild life. The hippopotamus would present a huge problem to several sports.

The next challenge will be for the World Anti Doping Agency to run testing on the heart shaped herb and the Wakandan food supply to ensure that there are no performance enhancing effects. Countries that host the Olympics will have their own athletes competing in the games, but it's still not clear if their athletes would be cleared by WADA. There is no doubt that the heart shaped herb that gives the Black Panther his power would be banned as a performance enhancing drug. Whether or not they can even test for it is another matter. We also don't know much about the process by which the Panther removes the HSH from his body for athletic competition. Does some of the PED still stay in his blood?

Little is known about the biochemistry of the heart shaped herb, except that it grows from some kind of radiation or chemical produced by the vibranium under the soil. While not all plant life in Wakanda would have the same heavy concentration of this ingredient as the HSH, there is no question that it does exist in lower concentrations in other plant life. We know that vibranium has acted like a steroid for the domestic ecosystem. This creates a high probability that every potential Wakandan athlete is going to have a high quantity of PEDs in their blood, just from consuming the local food.

The IOC will have to make a decision on whether or not the Wakandan athletes count as "enhanced" from eating plants that grow in soil contaminated with a form of steroid. They may have an unfair advantage, even the ones who have never eaten a Heart Shaped Herb. If its people are not allowed to compete in the Olympics, they won't be allowed to host the Olympics. They will need an answer on this matter before their bid can even be considered. The sooner they set up a supervised WADA laboratory in the Golden City, the better.

Assuming that Wakandan athletes are cleared for full competition, it would be fascinating to see this unique nation hosting an Olympics. It would be a fantastic way to open Black Panther 2, with Wakanda dominating the medal count and crushing existing world records. Perhaps the main villain in that movie (whoever they chose that to be), carries out a terrorist attack at the Wakandan Games. King T'Challa takes it as an embarrassment and is obsessed with hunting down the people responsible to avenge the tragedy. 

In what sports would the Wakandans have their greatest success, and which would they struggle with the most? Traditionally African countries have been very bad at swimming and rowing, which probably comes from how dangerous it is to swim in most places in Africa. It's just not a big recreational activity on the continent. They would likely dominate track and field events, where they might even own the podium and win gold, silver, and bronze in most events. There does not appear to be any golf courses in Wakanda, unless they made Tiger Woods part Wakandan (which I think Disney would be reluctant to do). Synchronized swimming would be a challenge, probably BMX too. I could see a scene where a mounted rhino plows through an equestrian course. Badminton and table tennis may not be big in Wakanda, but we can't confirm that for sure.

You could have an incredible scene with the Wakanda basketball team playing the USA in the gold medal game. For sure you could get some incredible cameos. NBA stars would be lining up to appear in BP2. You could even have a few NBA players (like LeBron) actually be of Wakandan lineage.