UK Sport have tabled an ambitious plan to bring the Olympic Games back to London as early as 2036.

Agency chiefs believe a successful bid for the Games could help catapult Britain to surpass the United States and top the Olympic medal table.

The Mayor of London’s office has said it would get behind any potential bid, while the International Olympic Committee insisted it was not too soon for London to host the Games, despite having done so as recently as 2012.

UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl told Standard Sport: “We’ve got some great facilities and it would be great to see it done again. It’s early days but there’s no reason why we can’t bid.

“I would say if you look at where the Games have been held over recent cycles and if you were looking at where a European location would best next fit, it would be great if it [London hosting the Olympics] was 2032, but I would have thought 2036 is more likely.”

Plans to host the Games just six cycles after last performing the role are part of a wider target to top the Olympic medals table, having finished runner-up to the United States at Rio 2016.

To achieve that lofty ambition, UK Sport have said that would equate to £1billion in funding for their athletes per four-year Olympic cycle post-Tokyo, a steep rise on the current £550million core funding leading up to next year’s Games in Japan. There is no indication at this stage how willing the Government would be to make such funding available.

But Nicholl said it would be great “to have cross-party support” in Westminster, as was the case for London’s last bid, to “host the Games between 2032 and 2040”.

As for the wider ambition to be the world’s No1 Olympic nation, Nicholl added: “The dream scenario would be an incredibly long-term investment in the potential for us to be topping the Olympic medal table. There’s no reason why, if this nation wanted to be the No1 nation in the Olympic table, we couldn’t be. I really think we could if we have the right resources.

“Hosting the Olympics would give extra longer-term focus in this bid to be the best in the world.

“It adds significant momentum and potential to that. It becomes more likely to happen.”

Any official Olympic bid would have to be tabled by the British Olympic Association and no talks have been held beyond UK Sport at this stage.

But a spokesperson for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who has long pushed his target to make London the sporting capital of the world, said his office would get on board with backing a bid for the capital to host the Games. “If there was the possibility of a London bid in that period of time, it would be a very exciting prospect that we’d be behind,” the spokesperson said.

The IOC, who select Olympic cities, are keen to lower the often exorbitant cost of hosting the Games. The London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics cost £8.77bn, while the current bill for Tokyo 2020 is approaching £20bn. With much of the infrastructure in place from seven years ago, a second London bid would involve significantly reduced costs.

And the IOC insisted that London having hosted the Games as recently as 2012 would not count against it.

A spokesperson said: “There is no reason why London can’t bid. There was Los Angeles in 1984 and again in 2028, then Beijing for 2008 and again for the Winter Olympics 2022. We’re always pleased when cities bid for the Games and particularly London, with its great legacy. I’m sure people in London would relish it.”