IOC to decide hosts for 2024 and 2028 Olympics on Tuesday

Last month, IOC members supported the plan to award both the 2024 and 2028 Games together, but the recommendation will be ratified by a vote at their Swiss headquarters Lausanne on Tuesday.

IOC president Thomas Bach opened a ground-breaking week for the Olympic movement on Sunday, in which he said, “We’ll have some interesting days in Lausanne. Some very important decisions will be taken. More decisions will be made in Lima,” reported AFP.

Both Paris and Los Angeles will present their bids to the IOC on Tuesday. Last week, the IOC Evaluation Commission report heaped praise on both bidding cities stating that there was “very little to separate” the two cities.

“Members of the Evaluation Commission have used the terms ‘forward-looking’, ‘innovative’, ‘vibrant’ and ‘cool’ to describe the Los Angeles candidature, and ‘historical’, ‘cultural’, ‘iconic’ and ‘amazing backdrops’ for that of Paris,” said Patrick Baumann, IOC member and chair of the 2024 Evaluation Commission.

“However, whatever the description, it truly is a tale of two great Olympic cities. The two projects are different in nature, but each city presents a proposal which is genuinely authentic and reflects the best of what each has to offer.”

The Commission’s evaluation report noted that in line with the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, both Los Angeles and Paris are planning to use a record number of existing and temporary venues, which will be a first in Olympic history and a move designed to cut costs and boost sustainability.

Bach also added that the IOC had a “golden opportunity” with two “great cities” competing for 2024 and did not want to turn either away, particularly at a time when interest in hosting Olympics has faded due to the vast expenses.

But the double awarding would not be the first occasion, as the IOC awarded the 1924 and 1928 Summer Games to Paris and Amsterdam resepctively as well as later promising Los Angeles the 1932 Games.

Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, had pushed for the joint awarding as the world, and Europe in particular, struggled to rebound after the devastating First World War.