If Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympics holds up, it will have plenty of competition.
Paris announced its bid to host the 2024 Summer Games, joining Boston, Rome and Hamburg as one of four cities in contention for the selection. Budapest also is expected to join sometime this summer.
The French capital declared its candidacy Tuesday in a formal ceremony at the French Olympic Committee headquarters.
“We believe that this bid and our goal to host the 2024 Games will excite, unite and enthuse the people of Paris, our entire nation and lovers of Olympic and Paralympic sport all over the world,” bid chairman Bernard Lapasset said, via The Boston Globe.
For all its rich history, Paris hasn’t had the best luck when it comes to hosting the Summer Olympics. The Games have been held there just twice — in 1900 and 1924 — and the city’s bids to host fell short for the 1992 (Barcelona), 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London) Olympics. France last hosted an Olympics when the 1992 Winter Games were held in Albertville.
Paris has until September to officially submit its bid to the International Olympic Committee, which will choose the host city in 2017. Boston is operating on the same timetable, but recent comments from the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Angela Ruggiero suggest the city’s bid might be in jeopardy.
Lapasset said 60 to 80 percent of potential venues already have been built, and that the Games would center around Paris landmarks such as the Roland Garros tennis stadium and the Stade de France cycling track.
Thumbnail photo via Susan Mullane/USA TODAY Sports Images
