IOC to meet over double Olympic bid

Lausanne, July 10: Olympic chiefs will meet in Lausanne on Tuesday to discuss and likely rubber-stamp the process to award the 2024 and 2028 Games simultaneously.

Members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will hold an extraordinary session after presentations by the campaign teams for Los Angeles and Paris, battling for the right to succeed 2020 hosts Tokyo and stage the Games in seven years’ time.

Last month IOC bosses backed a plan to award both the 2024 and 2028 Games together, with the recommendation expected to be backed by a vote at their Swiss headquarters on Tuesday.

IOC president Thomas Bach opened a groundbreaking week for the Olympic movement on Sunday by telling IOC top brass: “We’ll have some interesting days in Lausanne. Some very important decisions will be taken. More decisions will be made in Lima.”

The Peruvian capital Lima hosts the 130th IOC Congress on September 13 where the vote to decide the 2024 and likely 2028 hosts will be made.

Both Paris, whose delegation is being led by French President Emmanuel Macron, and Los Angeles will present their bids to the IOC on Tuesday.

Last week the IOC Evaluation Commission report lavished praise on both bidding cities, stating there was “very little to separate” the two rivals.

The IOC report noted that in line with the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, both Los Angeles and Paris are planning to use a record number of existing and temporary venues, a first in Olympic history and a move designed to cut costs and boost sustainability.