The United States Olympic Committee has selected Boston as its bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the USOC announced in a Thursday press release.
Boston beat out San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles to earn the bid. The USOC met in Denver, Colorado on Thursday to decide on a bid city.
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said the selection is a great honor to the city and recognizes the talents and leadership that make it eligible to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“Our goal is to host Olympic and Paralympic Games that are innovative, walkable and hospitable to all,” Walsh said in a Thursday statement. “Boston hopes to welcome the world’s greatest athletes to one of the world’s great cities.”
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said he sees this bid as a great opportunity for the Commonwealth.
“This is great news for Boston and the Commonwealth as it provides an exciting opportunity to promote Massachusetts on the world stage,” he said in a Thursday statement. “I look forward to working with Mayor Walsh and the Boston 2024 organization to address the multitude of issues that need to be discussed, including keeping costs down and continuing to press forward on pledges of a privately funded Olympics as the process moves forward before the IOC [International Olympic Committee].”
The process of selecting a city among the four finalists ended with Boston’s strong and compelling bid, said USOC Chairman Larry Probst in the release.
“We’re grateful to the leaders in each of the four cities for their partnership and interest in hosting the most exciting sports competition on earth,” he said. “The deliberative and collaborative process that we put in place for selecting a city has resulted in a strong U.S. bid that can truly serve the athletes and the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”
Boston will attempt to bring the Olympics back to the U.S. for the first time since the 2002 Olympics, which were held in Salt Lake City. The IOC will determine a host city in 2017, according to the release. USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said the next steps for the city will be to engage the local community in improving their bid.
“Today’s decision begins the next phase in our 2024 bid campaign, and we couldn’t be more excited about the partnership we’ve established with the leadership team in Boston,” he said in the release. “This bid uniquely combines an exciting, athlete-focused concept for hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games with Boston’s existing long-term vision.”
The International Olympic Committee will meet with representatives from each city in Lausanne, Switzerland in October to establish rules and procedures for the international bidding campaign. Cities will then have until Jan. 8, 2016 to submit their final bids to the IOC.
CORRECTION: The incorrect photo was originally published. The article has been revised to reflect this change.
