Four U.S. Cities Want Hosting Rights For The Olympic And Paralympic Games in 2024

The United States of America (USA) is pushing all buttons in trying to get the rights in hosting of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games. The US Olympic Committee (USOC) has confirmed its intention to bid with cities like Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. all considered contenders.

“We are excited to announce our plans to put forth a bid for the 2024 Games and look forward to taking the next step of selecting from a group of four world-class cities to present a compelling and successful bid,” USOC chairman Larry Probst said in an official statement from the American Olympic organisation. “We’re grateful to the civic and political leaders in each of the four cities for the partnership that’s been demonstrated thus far, and confident that the deliberative process we’ve put in place is going to result in a strong US bid that can truly serve the athletes and the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”

The “Invitation Phase” for the cities interested opens on Jan. 15, 2015 but the actual decision on the winning host city/country will come Sept. 15, 2017 when the International Olympic Council meets in the 130th IOC Session in Lima, Peru. The deadline for applications to the International Olympic Committee is September 15, 2017.

“All four cities have presented plans that are part of the long-term visions for their communities. At our request, and because of the preliminary nature of our discussions, the cities have not spoken about their bids publicly in great detail. That will be an important part of the process after we make our selection in January,” USOC’s chief executive Scott Blackmun added.

As expected, multiple countries are still in the running this early. Africa has three countries and four cities interested, Nairobi, Kenya; Casablanca, Morocco; Durban and Johannesburg, South Africa. Asia and Oceania has one each, Doha, Qatar and Melbourne, Australia while Europe has eight, Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; Hamburg/Copenhagen, Germany/Denmark (co-hosts); Saint Petersburg, Russia; Kiev, Ukraine; Budapest, Hungary; Istanbul, Turkey; Baku, Azerbaijan.