2024: The US Olympic Committee has selected Boston to bid for the 2024 summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, over Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC.
After an extensive bidding and lobbying process the USOC board members chose Boston during the meeting at the Denver airport.
The USOC website says, "The decision followed a spirited discussion and more than one round of voting. Ultimately, the Boston bid received the unanimous endorsement of the USOC’s board of directors."
Boston is the capital of Massachusetts and one of the oldest cities in the United States, dating back to 1630. It is home to 4.5 million people and lies on the east coast of the United States a few hours drive north of New York.
The annual marathon is one of the biggest in the world and the city is also known for its famous professional sporting teams. In terms of the Olympics this is the Boston Celtics (basketball) and Boston Red Sox (baseball*).
“Today’s decision begins the next phase in our 2024 bid campaign, and we couldn’t be more excited about the partnership we’ve established with the leadership team in Boston,” said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun.
“This bid uniquely combines an exciting, athlete-focused concept for hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games with Boston’s existing long-term vision. We look forward to working with Mayor Walsh and the Boston 2024 team to fully engage with the local community and identify ways we can make the bid even better.”
Boston joins Rome as the only other city that has officially decided to bid. Germany will submit either Hamburg or Berlin, with France and Hungary among those also considering bids.
The International Olympic Committee deadline for submissions is September 2015 and the vote from all IOC members will be held in 2017.
At the extraordinary IOC Meeting in December, as part of Agenda 2020, the IOC voted to reform the bidding process to reduce the costs of bidding and allow greater flexibility for bidding cities to maximise existing venues and in 'exceptional circumstances' sharing events with other cities.
This important reform agenda was driven by John Coates, the AOC President and IOC Vice President.
Coates told the December meeting “bidding has to be appealing and sustainable for those cities. Bidding must be a win, win, for both parties, the bid city and the IOC”.
America's last two attempts to land the games resulted in embarrassments - fourth-place finishes for New York (2012) and Chicago (2016). The last time the Summer Games were held in the United States was 1996 with Atlanta. Salt Lake City hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 2002.
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