USOC Chooses Boston as American Bid for 2024 Olympics; IOC Decision Still 2 Years Away

At its meeting Thursday in Denver, Colorado, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has announced that Boston will be the official American bid to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

See Boston’s latest promotional video here.

“We’re excited about our plans to submit a bid for the 2024 Games and feel we have an incredibly strong partner in Boston that will work with us to present a compelling bid,” said USOC Chairman Larry Probst. “We’re grateful to the leaders in each of the four cities for their partnership and interest in hosting the most exciting sports competition on earth. The deliberative and collaborative process that we put in place for selecting a city has resulted in a strong U.S. bid that can truly serve the athletes and the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”

The city won over the other four American finalists – Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. – and will now advance to contend against international bidders, including those submitted by Rome, and those rumored to be under consideration like those from St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Paris, and South Africa.

USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus weighed in on the announcement as well. “Boston is well-known for its passionate support of its sports teams, and that will carry over to make it an extraordinary Olympic Games host,” Wielgus said. “This is a fantastic opportunity to grow the sport of swimming in Boston and the New England region, with additional participation opportunities, enhanced aquatic facilities and an avid support base of swim parents.”

Boston, according to the latest estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, was the smallest of the four American cities to bid.

Boston has never hosted an Olympic Games, and the United States has not hosted the Summer Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta. The U.S. has hosted the Summer Olympic Games four times in total: once in St. Louis (1904), and twice in Los Angeles (1932 and 1984).

Washington D.C. Statement

One of the other competitors for this spot, the Washington, D.C. bid, released the following statement after the announcement of Boston’s win:

“It was an honor to work with dozens of leaders from across the Capitol Region to envision how the Olympic Games would advance the goals of this community and foster greater unity,” Ramsey said.

“I grew up in this city and have seen firsthand how sport can be a force for good and how incredibly impactful it can be on a young person’s life. I remain deeply hopeful that the Olympic Games will return to the U.S. in 2024, and remain committed to working with the leaders of this region to ensure opportunities for our youth to pursue Olympic dreams,” Ramsey added.

“I am proud of the effort we put forth,” Washington 2024 Vice Chair Ted Leonsis added. “Through this endeavor, we saw once again that Washington is home to proud sports fans of all ages and from all walks of life.  I have no doubt that the shared enthusiasm and passion for sports will continue to drive economic growth and opportunities for our community.”

Selection timeline

The timeline between now and the expected 2017 announcement of the host city is as follows, courtesy of the IOC:

Invitation Phase

  • 15 January 2015: Invitation Phase opens

Applicant City Phase

  • 15 September 2015: The NOCs send the name of their Applicant Cities to the IOC
  • 7–9 October 2015: IOC to host information seminar for 2024 Applicant Cities in Lausanne
  • 8 January 2016: Deadline for Applicant Cities to submit Application Files and guarantee letters
  • March 2016: IOC Working Group Meeting to assess Applicant Cities (including video conference with each city)
  • April/May 2016: IOC Executive Board to select Candidate Cities
  • May 2016: Cities receive Candidate City Questionnaire and related documents

Candidate City Phase

  • 5–21 August 2016: Candidate Cities to attend Olympic Games Rio 2016 on Olympic Games Observers’ Programme
  • November/December 2016: Candidate Cities to attend Rio 2016 Debrief in Tokyo
  • January 2017: Deadline for Candidate Cities to submit Candidature File and guarantee letters
  • February/March 2017: Evaluation Commission visits
  • June 2017: IOC to publish Evaluation Commission Report
  • June 2017 (tbc): Candidate City Briefing to IOC members
  • Summer 2017: Candidate City presentations to the IOC Session; final report to Session from Evaluation Commission Chair
  • 15 September 2017: Election of the host city of the 2024 Olympic Games announced at the 130th IOC Session in Lima, Peru

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observer
9 years ago

Glad Los Angeles didn’t get it. Mayor Garcetti is a moron who is instructing the LAFD to hire based on race and religion. He didn’t like the amount of “white” applicants because it didn’t reflect the make up of the city which is only 21% white. Some USA Swim officials have been caught cheating and discriminating based on race. Too many liars, cheaters, kiss a**es and racists running Los Angeles and Southern California Swimming.

observer
Reply to  observer
9 years ago

Meant “race and gender”

liquidassets
9 years ago

What’s the aquatics venue?

Danjohnrob
Reply to  liquidassets
9 years ago

Boston would definitely have to build an aquatics venue! All the major universities (Harvard, MIT, BC, etc) have pools that could be used, I suppose, for practice sessions, but there is no pool adequate to host the Olympics. It would be exciting to see what might happen if one were built (and it was not just a temp pool like that used at Olympic Trials).

liquidassets
Reply to  Danjohnrob
9 years ago

That’s what I thought; I lived in Boston for 12 years and left about 16 years ago now, but I couldn’t think of any venue that could handle it. I swam with the Harvard master’s group at one point and it was a nice pool but nowhere near adequate. Also, at the point I left Boston also wasn’t quite as popular a destination for conferences, trade shows, and other large events compared with other cities of comparable size because the number of hotels there was smaller than peer cities, and therefore the prices so high. But that may have changed since I left.

aswimfan
9 years ago

I am happy that Boston won.
And I am surprised Boston is smaller than DC in terms of population.

Danjohnrob
Reply to  aswimfan
9 years ago

Boston has not annexed the surrounding cities (Cambridge, Somerville, Newton, etc, etc) like most major US cities. If you count the population of the metropolitan area it’s still small, but probably not smaller than DC. Of course, DC hasn’t annexed its metropolitan area either…

bobo gigi
9 years ago

Wow! I knew Boston had chances but I really thought LA would be selected.
Good luck to Boston but you will have in my opinion a serious European opponent to beat.

Off topic but also big thanks to your President and your Secretary of State for their very nice and very classy words after the terrorist attacks of last Tuesday in my country. Not surprising from these 2 great Americans.
Freedom will ever defeat barbarism.

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
9 years ago

Freedom will always defeat barbarism.

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
9 years ago

of last Wednesday

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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