For the first time in 100 years, hosting rights for two Olympic Games could be announced at the same time. IOC chief Thomas Bach has said the 2024 and 2028 hosts will be revealed in September.The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board on Friday recommended that the 2024 and 2028 Games should be awarded at the same time to candidate cities Paris and Los Angeles.
IOC members are expected to rubber stamp the plans at an extraordinary meeting in July. The
Committee will then announce the hosts of the 2024 event on September 13 in Lima. Paris and Los Angeles are the only candidates left in the race and the move would see both of them awarded a summer games. Only the order would have to be determined.
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“Having two such great cities, two such great countries, two candidates who are really enthusiastic and promoting the Olympic Games and the Olympic spirit… this represents a golden opportunity for the Olympic Games,” IOC president Thomas Bach told reporters. “It is a win-win-win situation.”
Los Angeles was host city in 1984 and 1932. Paris has also held the Games on two occasions – in 1900 and 1924.
Paris 2024, LA 2028?
With candidate cities facing a huge amount of work and expenditure in the process, Bach said having to bid again would be too costly and demotivating. Both cities welcomed the move.
” We look forward to sharing our unique story with the IOC membership and working together to offer the best path forward for our city and the Olympic Movement’s future,” LA mayor Eric Garcetti and bid chief Casey Wasserman said.
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The Paris team added: “We believe that the IOC is acting in the best interests of the Olympic Movement and the future of the Games in taking these steps … We continue to work hard to win the support of IOC Members and the broader sports family for a Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games based on that vision.”
Initial projections suggest that Paris will host the 2024 Games before the event heads to the US west coast four years later.
Citizen mistrust
Initially, Hamburg, Boston, Rome and Budapest had applied for the 2024 Summer Games. Yet all four withdrew their bid. Tax-payers remained skeptical that the days of expensive largesse were in no way over, as the IOC had promised.
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