Both Germany and France have been in the news recently about their potential bids for the 2024 Olympic Games.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) recently announced it would wait until 2015 to decide whether to present either Hamburg or Berlin as candidate cities for the 2024 or 2028 Olympics, even though they were expected to present their decision in Dresden on December 6.
One reason for the delay is that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is currently in the middle of a reform process they have named “Olympic Agenda 2020.” Among the discussions taking place are potential changes to the bidding process. These could include: changing the weighting formula of the different evaluation criteria; introducing a budget ceiling; and increasing transparency and fairness.
The president of the DOSB, Alfons Hoermann, is therefore waiting for the IOC’s announcement in December, which would lay out any such changes. He is also taking the time to make sure there is enough public support for a bid. Last year, Munich turned down the chance to bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The situation in France is a little different.
While their Olympic organizing committee is also waiting to hear from the IOC in December, the recent announcement of Prime Minister Manuel Valls that France would make a bid to host Expo 2025 has set off rumors of the death of a 2024 Paris Olympics proposal.
French government officials and the French Olympic Committee immediately tried to quell the rumors, arguing that a French bid for the 2025 world’s fair would not preclude a bid for the 2024 Olympics. While it is true that two large-scale international events like that would be challenging in terms of logistics and finances, it is possible. In fact, Japan won the hosting rights to both the 2019 rugby World Cup and the 2020 Olympics.
Paris had been considered a favorite to win the 2012 Olympics and the French are still smarting about having lost out to London. Since some observers believe that the US bid will be hard to beat, France seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach.
The USOC has not definitively announced it will put forth a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, but it is well into the process of selecting a representing city. Here are some of the reports SwimSwam have done on the USOC’s process of selecting potential bid cities for the 2024 Olympics. :
- USOC: 10 cities bidding
- San Diego bid
- Los Angeles bid
- Washington, D.C. bid
The committee narrowed the number of potential host cities to four in a closed meeting on July 13: those cities are Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
The USOC has not yet announced the timetable for selecting which US city it will present in an official bid to the IOC. They, too, are waiting to hear from the IOC in December.
The IOC will vote on the host city in 2017.
Unfortunately my hometown of Hamburg won’t host the 2014 Olympic Summer Games. However, I completely respect Hamburg’s decision to withdraw its bid.
LA or Paris?
It will be yet another epic Olympic swimming spectacle!