LA, Paris arrive for Olympic meetings; 2024 deal must wait
July 10, 2017 | 5:29am
From left to right: The Vice-Presidents of the International Olympic Committee, IOC, Ugur Erdener, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., Yu Zaiqing and John Coates wait for the opening of the IOC executive board meeting, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Switzerland, Sunday, July 9, 2017. | Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The United States is going to host its first Summer Olympics since 1996.
France is going to host its first Summer Olympics in at least 100 years.
Just don't expect the International Olympic Committee to announce this week which of Los Angeles or Paris will host the 2024 Olympics and which will get the 2028 edition.
Bid leaders from LA and Paris arrived this weekend in the Olympic capital city Lausanne ahead of their Tuesday morning presentations to the full IOC membership. France's President Emmanuel Macron arrives Monday to offer his charismatic support.
Both bid teams declined official comment Sunday about an expected decision to prepare for a double hosting award in September, when the IOC's annual meeting is held in Lima, Peru.
A consensus deal between the bid cities and IOC leadership seems likely before anyone arrives in the Peruvian capital.
Paris has been seen as favorite for 2024 — the centenary of its last Olympics — after recent comments by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and LA 2024 bid chairman Casey Wasserman acknowledging their openness to look ahead to 2028.
Still, the cities must first complete the required presentation Tuesday of their technical plans for staging more than 300 medal events across more than two weeks. An IOC evaluation panel hailed them last week as outstanding.
In a normal Olympic hosting race, the Swiss midsummer event would be a key stage in a fiercely fought campaign.
However, the 2024 Summer Games bidding stopped being normal last December when IOC President Thomas Bach said the existing selection process produced too many losers.
A double award — due on Sept. 13 — has seemed increasingly likely in the seven months since Bach's statement upended calculations.
It offers the IOC stability with two world-class cities for the next decade after years of busted budgets for hosts and political defeats to sink potential candidates. It also guards against a 2024 loser refusing to bid again for 2028.
The plan must be approved by the full IOC of up to 95 members on Tuesday afternoon, hours after LA and Paris present on stage at a convention center on the outskirts of Lausanne.
It would be a stunning upset if the typically conservative IOC, including members of European and Arab royal families, fails to ratify a formal proposal made last month by the Bach-chaired executive board.
The board opened a two-day meeting Sunday that will focus on other Olympic business.
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