There are days when it seems like the opportunity to host the Olympics is as competitive as the events themselves. If that’s true, the 2024 Olympics are the equivalent to the Super Bowl.
Paris, Nairobi, Qatar, Berlin, Baku, Rome, Toronto, Dubai, and eight U.S. cities are all vying to host.
Well, now you can throw Vienna on the list after the Austrian Olympic Committee (OeOC) announced its intentions to bid for the Games Wednesday.
“London 2012 was an impressive example of what effect the Summer Games can have,” OeOC secretary general Peter Mennel told Reuters. “The necessary infrastructure work has a long term effect on the development of grass roots and especially top-level sports because of the improved training options.”
Committee President Karl Stoss seemed surprised by the news, but said he’d be happy to back any bid that could be financially successful, so long as the country felt it had the necessary infrastructure in place.
Austria has hosted the Winter Games twice, in Innsbruck in 1964 and ’76, but has never hosted a Summer Games, likely because they’re not really summer folks: Austria failed to the medal in London this summer.
