SF Loses Bid To Host Olympics

A bid by the city of San Francisco to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games has fallen through.

San Francisco sought to be chosen by the U.S. Olympic Committee as the country’s bid city to host the 2024 summer games, but the committee chose Boston instead.

The four U.S. finalists were Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The four finalists were selected after a 16-month process that began with the USOC reaching out to about 35 U.S. cities to gauge interest in a bid.

The USOC made its final choice during a meeting at Denver International Airport.

The International Olympic Committee will make a final decision on the host city in 2017.

All potential bids for the 2024 Summer Olympics must be submitted by Sept. 15 to the International Olympic Committee, which will select the host city for both the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2017.

Potential foreign bidders include: Rome; Nairobi, Kenya; Casablanca, Morocco; Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa; Doha, Qatar; Melbourne, Australia; Paris; Hamburg, Germany; and St. Petersburg, Russia.

“We congratulate Boston, which is a great city and would make a fantastic host,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement.

“While San Francisco would have been an excellent choice, we look forward to supporting the USOC’s efforts to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games back to the U.S. in 2024.”

San Francisco Giants president and CEO Larry Baer, who worked on a team developing the logistical plan for the games, expressed gratitude to everyone involved today.

“While we are certainly disappointed by the outcome, we know it was a difficult decision for the USOC and we are extremely proud of our proposal that our all-volunteer team presented to the USOC over this past year,” Baer said.

-Bay City News and City News Service

-Image via Morguefile.

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