United States Olympic Committee to Narrow Down Candidate Cities for Potential 2024 Bid

April 9, 2014

Despite not deciding on whether it will bid for the 2024 Olympics, the United States Olympic Committee hopes to narrow down a list of cities capable of winning a bid within the next couple months.

A number of cities have professed their interest already increasing the pressure for the committee to make a bid.

“It is a very informal process and our goal is to make a decision (on whether to proceed) by the end of the year and there haven’t been any formal deadlines or submissions,” USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said on a conference call.

“The dialogue is really around which cities do we think can put together a bid that is going to be a fantastic bid and which cities do we think have the opportunity to win.

“Before we make a final decision we need to get into fairly detailed discussions with hopefully a smaller number of cities so our objective is to be in that position within the next couple of months.”

The USOC sent letters to the mayors of America’s 35 biggest cities last year to gauge interest in bidding for the 2024 Games and has been tight-lipped ever since about the response calling the process “informal.”

Several cities are believed to have thrown their hats into the ring, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and San Diego but as yet no preferred candidate has been identified.

The last Olympics staged in the United States were the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.

The United States has not hosted a Summer Games since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and can expect stiff competition if it does enter the 2024 race with potential bids coming from Rome, Paris, Doha and Durban, South Africa.

The IOC has encouraged the United States to submit a candidate but the USOC will want firmer support before proceeding.

“We have heard plenty of encouragement from multiple IOC members about a U.S. bid so I think IOC membership is favorably inclined towards us at least considering going forward,” said USOC chairman Larry Probst.

The decision on the 2024 host will be made in 2017.

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