The IOC ratified a proposal to award both the 2024 and 2028 Olympics this summer, paving the way for Los Angeles and Paris to both host the Games.
Which city gets 2024 and which gets 2028 is to be decided after further negotiations among both cities and the IOC. LA and Paris both prefer 2024 over 2028.
“One of them would put their hand up for 2028 and that same city would vacate 2024,” IOC vice president John Coates said.
If an agreement can’t be reached, only the normal 2024 Olympic vote will happen in September between LA and Paris, the two remaining 2024 finalists.
The last time two Olympic hosts were determined at once was in 1921, when the 1924 Paris and 1928 Amsterdam Games were awarded, according to Olympstats.com.
The IOC deemed the LA and Paris bids for 2024 so strong that it wanted to grant an Olympics to each city.
“This is a golden opportunity,” IOC president Thomas Bach said of the rare double-awarding proposal by the IOC executive board before it was ratified in Lausanne, Switzerland. “It’s hard to imagine something better.”
VIDEO: Kobe Bryant closes LA 2024 bid presentation
The U.S. would host its first Olympics since 2002 (and first Summer Games since 1996). Paris would host for the first time since 1924.
The U.S. would end its longest drought between hosting an Olympics since the 28-year gap between 1932 and 1960. It failed in bids for 2012 (New York City) and 2016 (Chicago).
Paris, a finalist for 1992, 2008 and 2012, is reported by many as the frontrunner for the 2024 Olympics, which would be on the 100th anniversary of its last time hosting.
A Paris bid leader has gone so far as to issue an ultimatum, repeatedly, earlier this year that it would not accept the 2028 Olympics. LA 2024 leaders have not closed the door on accepting 2028.
“From the beginning, we approached this bid in a manner that is different from our competitors,” LA 2024 bid chairman Casey Wasserman said in a presentation to IOC members before Tuesday’s vote. “We’ve never given you an ultimatum about 2024. We don’t believe in ultimatums.”
Whoever gets the 2024 and 2028 Games, this much is clear: LA and Paris would join London as the only cities to host the Olympics three times.
LA and Paris were the remaining 2024 finalists after Boston, Hamburg, Rome and Budapest dropped out.
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Changing political climates in France and the U.S. were also a part of this Olympic bid race.
New French President Emmanuel Macron is in Lausanne for this week’s IOC session. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted his support Tuesday for an LA Olympic bid.
“The Olympic Games, as we all know, are not and have never been immune to geopolitics,” USOC chairman Larry Probst told his fellow IOC members during LA 2024’s presentation Tuesday morning. “As IOC members, we strive to separate politics and sport in our decisions. I know this is difficult, especially today. It is difficult for me as well. It is our duty to do our best.”
The LA 2024 bid presentation team included Olympic champions Janet Evans, Allyson Felix, Michael Johnson and Angela Ruggiero, who is an IOC member.
Kobe Bryant starred in the team’s last prerecorded video shown to IOC members to close its 50-minute presentation.
“To have the Olympics here and to have so many different cultures represented would be a beautiful story to tell,” Bryant said.
The video faded behind the LA 2024 slogan, “Follow the Sun,” amid applause from IOC members. LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and Wasserman then exchanged fist pounds at the podium.
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