USA announces bid for 2024 Olympics

CEBU, Philippines – The United States announced on Tuesday it would bid to host the 2024 Summer Games but their Olympic committee plans to wait until January before naming their candidate city.

Los Angeles, Washington, Boston and San Francisco made their final presentations to the United States Olympic Committee board of directors on Tuesday.

“We are going to take our time and pick the city we think has the best chance of winning the competition from other cities around the world,” said USOC chairman Larry Probst.

All four cities have said it would cost between $4 billion and $5 billion to host the Olympics, not including infrastructure improvements.

The United States hasn’t hosted a Summer Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Games. The 2002 Winter Olympics were the last on US soil. (AFP)

The USA can expect a tough competition for the 2024 Games.

The official decision to bid for the Olympics comes just 24 hours after Italy announced Rome would spearhead what is expected to be a multi-city bid.

Germany has said that Berlin or Hamburg will be put forward for the 2024 or 2028 Summer Games.

Paris is to decide in January whether to stage a bid and the Azerbaijan capital, Baku, and Doha — both beaten by Tokyo in the bid to host the 2020 Games — are potential candidates. South Africa could have a bid by Durban or a joint Johannesburg-Pretoria bid.

The International Olympic Committee will choose a final list of candidate cities in May 2016 and make a final decision in Lima in 2017.  (AFP)