Looks Like LA, Paris Will Host 2024, 2028 Olympics

If they can agree who goes first, Paris and Los Angeles will be awarded the 2024 and 2028 Olympics. International Olympic Committee members voted unanimously to seek a consensus three-way deal between the two bid cities and the IOC executive board, the AP reports. Talks will open with Paris widely seen as the favorite for 2024. If a deal falls through, only the 2024 hosting rights will be voted on when the IOC next meets, on Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru. However, an agreement seemed assured by the reaction of the two mayors. Eric Garcetti of LA and Anne Hidalgo of Paris emerged on stage holding hands to welcome the decision. A deal is also likely because a head-to-head fight for 2024 would create a loser that is unlikely to return four years later for a new 2028 bid contest. At separate news conferences, the mayors said they could work toward a deal.

The mayors were united on stage by IOC President Thomas Bach, who raised an arm of each in a shared gesture of triumph. A deal to make both cities winners would fulfil a strategy that Bach set in motion last December to help safeguard a stable future for the signature Olympic event. The dual award can give the IOC a decade of stability with two world-class cities touting financially secure bids. LA plans to use only existing venues with zero risk of white elephants. This follows years of overspending by Olympic hosts and a series of political defeats that have sunk the campaigns of potential candidates. It also avoids inflicting a third recent defeat on Paris—which lost with bids for the 2008 and 2012 Olympics—and the United States. New York and Chicago both lost heavily for 2012 and 2016, respectively. "Working hard to get the Olympics for the United States (L.A.). Stay tuned!" President Trump tweeted Tuesday. (More Summer Olympics stories.)