The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Wanted: Cities to host 2024 games
LONDON >> Rejected time and again for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the IOC will soon be seeking suitors for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
It will be hoping to attract a competitive, highprofile field to show there are cities that want to host the games rather than shun them.
Even before Oslo became the fourth city to drop out of the race for the 2022 Games, the International Olympic Committee had started reviewing its bidding system to make it more appealing and less expensive for future host cities.
Making the process more flexible — allowing cities to tailor a bid to their own needs from the start rather than adhere to strict IOC requirements — is central to IOC President Thomas Bach’s “Olympic Agenda 2020” reform package.
Recommendations are being finalized this week at an IOC executive board meeting in Montreux, Switzerland.
Potential bidders for 2024 are waiting to see exactly what changes are being made. The new rules will be put to a vote at a special IOC assembly in Monaco from Dec. 8-9.
Bids will need to be submitted next year. The host city will be chosen in 2017.
It will be a critical test for the IOC after the 2022 debacle, which has left Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, as the only contenders following the withdrawals of Stockholm; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; and Oslo. Proposed bids from Munich and St. Moritz-Davos were rejected in referendums in Germany and Switzerland.
“There is strong interest (in 2024),” Bach said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “We are getting more and more signals and questions about 2024 and what changes they can expect. You can already see there is a very positive attitude.”
Return to the USA?
The U.S. hasn’t hosted the Summer Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta. New York failed in a bid for 2012, while Chicago was shot down by the IOC for 2016. Stung by those defeats, the U.S. Olympic Committee stayed out of the race for 2020. But 2024 could be the right time. Relations between the U.S. and IOC have improved since the two sides signed a new revenue-sharing agreement in 2012.
The USOC is weighing bids from four cities before deciding whether to submit a candidate to the IOC next year. Vying for the U.S. nomination are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Washington. Los Angeles hosted the games in 1932 and 1984 and offers the easiest choice from the U.S., but does the world want to go back for a third time or go somewhere new?
Whatever happens, the U.S. would start as the favorite if it enters a bid.
Paris centennial?
2024 will mark 100 years since Paris hosted its last Olympics, so the timing and symbolism would be strong. France has a dubious record in recent Olympic bidding. Paris was the favorite for the 2012 Olympics but lost out to London. Annecy received only seven votes in the 2011 election for the 2018 Winter Games won by Pyeongchang, South Korea.