FNOC: France Will Not Bid for 2020 Olympic Games

France has confirmed that the country will not bid for the 2020 Olympics after Annecy picked up only seven votes in last week’s vote for the 2018 Winter Games.

Annecy fell well short of PyeongChang’s winning total of 63 and second-placed Munich on 25 votes. However, the French National Olympic Committee (FNOC) has not ruled out entering the race for the 2024 Games, which will mark 100 years from the 1924 Paris Olympics.

An FNOC statement said: “There will not be a bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralaympics. The French committee will define the conditions for a future project by the end of 2011. A new Olympic bid must have the vision of the sports movement for the sport of the future. It must be worked out sufficiently in advance and be carried out in total harmony by the sports movement, the bid city and the state.”

The Italian capital of Rome remains the only city to have officially submitted a bid for the 2020 Games, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) having set a deadline of September 1 for applicant cities to register their interest. Bid confirmations are expected from Tokyo, while a Middle Eastern country is also expected to enter the running for the Games.

Istanbul and Madrid have today confirmed that they will bid for the 2020 Games, which will be the Spanish city’s third bid in a row, similar to PyeongChang’s efforts in the Winter Games which culminated in the South Korean city being awarded the 2018 edition last week.

There is also speculation that South Africa could change its original decision against bidding for the Olympics after IOC president Jacques Rogge declared the country as “ready” to host the Games after last week’s IOC Session in Durban.

The IOC will vote on the 2020 host city in 2013.