LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12 (UPI) — The United States Olympic Committee said Wednesday that if it makes a bid for the 2024 Summer Games, Los Angeles will carry the flag.
“We continue to think that a U.S. bid for the 2024 Games can be successful,” USOC chairman Larry Probst said in a statement Wednesday. “The board authorized CEO Scott Blackmun to work with Los Angeles to explore the viability of a potential bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Blackmun said the USOC plans to submit a bid to the International Olympic Committee by the Sept. 15 deadline.
Los Angeles has hosted the Summer Olympics twice previously — in 1932 and 1984 — and a successful 2024 bid would put the games back in the United States’ second-largest city exactly 40 years after its last games.
The IOC will choose the host city in 2017. A Los Angeles bid, however, could spell trouble for other American cities hoping to bid for the Olympics.
Salt Lake City, which hosted the 2002 Winter Games, is planning to put forth another bid for 2026 — but if LA gets the nod, the Utah capital might have to wait longer before the USOC agrees to submit another U.S. bid.
Salt Lake City originally intended to bid for the 2022 games, but couldn’t because the USOC instead decided to prepare bids for 2024 and 2026.
If Los Angeles won the 2024 games, it might be unlikely that another U.S. city would be selected for 2026 because as the IOC typically doesn’t award consecutive games to the same continent or nation.
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