U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Larry Probst said that if the U.S. decides next year to bid on the 2024 Olympics, it will come from “not a long list of cities, realistically.”
“I think it’s got to be a city that is compelling to people around the world, that resonates with all of the IOC membership,” Probst told The Associated Press after being voted in as an International Olympic Committee member in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Tuesday.
In February, the USOC sent letters to mayors of 35 cities to gauge interest in potential bids for 2024. The U.S. hasn’t hosted an Olympics since the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games. It is in the midst of its longest stretch between hosting Olympics since the 28-year gap between 1932 (Los Angeles, Summer) and 1960 (Squaw Valley, Winter).
Cities that expressed interest from the group of 35 include Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Probst said 2024 Olympic bidding will be talked about at USOC meetings in December, when a timetable for the selection of a city could be created. Bidding for the 2024 Olympic host begins in 2015, and the IOC will vote in 2017.
“First step is we have to decide that we are going to move forward and we have to go through a process of which city gives us the best chance,” Probst told the AP.
Probst didn’t think Tokyo’s win over Istanbul and Madrid for the 2020 Olympics “changes the calculation” for potential 2024 plans.
Asia will have hosted back-to-back Olympics in 2018 and 2020. The 2022 Winter Games host will be determined in 2015. Barcelona, Munich and Oslo have considered bids, but Almaty, Kazakhstan, is the only official application so far.
For 2024, Paris and Rome have been looked at as potential bidders.
From 2004 through 2020, Europe and Asia will have hosted seven of nine Olympics. Africa has never hosted, Australia last hosted in 2000, Rio de Janeiro will be the first South American host in 2016 and Vancouver held the 2010 Winter Games.
