Madrid bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics Madrid bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics Madrid 2020 was a bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics by the city of Madrid and the Spanish Olympic Committee. The last time the Olympic Games were hosted in Spain was in 1992 when Barcelona hosted the XXV Olympiad. This was the only time the Olympic Games were staged in Spain. Madrid was nominated by the Spanish Olympic Committee on June 1, 2011. It was then approved by the government a month later. On September 8, 2011 it was announced that Alejandro Blanco, president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, would preside the Madrid
Olympic Games in the opening ceremony. Though the flame has been an Olympic symbol since 1928, the torch relay was only introduced at the 1936 Summer Games to promote the Third Reich. The Olympic mascot, an animal or human figure representing the cultural heritage of the host country, was introduced in 1968. It has played an important part of the Games' identity promotion since the 1980 Summer Olympics, when the Russian bear cub Misha reached international stardom. The mascot of the Summer Olympics in London was named Wenlock after the town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire. Much Wenlock still hosts the Wenlock