2020 Olympics: 6 Cities Enter Bids; U.S. Abstains
Six cities have responded to Thursday’s deadline for submissions to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The six cities that have submitted bids for the 2020 Olympics are Rome, Madrid, Tokyo, Istanbul, Doha, and Baku.
The IOC released a statement saying, “The International Olympic Committee is pleased to announce that six cities have been put forward by their respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to apply to host the Games of XXXII Olympiad in 2020.”
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The decision of which city will host the games is a two-phase process.
The first phase of decisions, known as the Candidature Acceptance Procedure, will analyze which cities can withstand holding such a large scale event. The first round of decisions will be announced in May 2012.
The final decision will be made on Sept. 7, 2013 in Buenos Aries at the 125th International Olympic Committee Session.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., a son of a former IOC president has said of the bids, “Clearly the bids that begin with the most strength are Madrid, Rome and Tokyo, cities that are consolidated as three great urban centers.”
Both Rome and Tokyo have held Olympic games before. Rome held the Summer Olympics in 1960 and Toyko held the Summer Olympics in 1964.
Both Baku and Doha bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics and lost to Rio de Janerio.
Istanbul has also made several bids in the past.
Turkish IOC member, Ugur Erdener said, “Every candidate city aspires to prepare in the best possible way and I can say that Istanbul and Turkey are going to prepare in the best way possible to organize the 2020 Games.”
Within the United States cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York, and Tulsa, all expressed interest to hold the games. Even though the IOC stated that it was interested in receiving a U.S. bid, the United States ultimately decided not to bid.
The next Summer Olympics will be held in London in 2012.
