Paris to stage 2024 Summer Olympics with Los Angeles hosting 2028

Los Angeles has agreed to host the 2028 Summer Olympics, city officials and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed on Monday, in a deal that paves the way for Paris to host the 2024 Summer Games.

"The IOC welcomes this decision of the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Candidature Committee, and we are pleased to release the Host City contract 2028 in a transparent and timely manner," said IOC President Thomas Bach in a statement.

The IOC said that it would make contributions to the organising committee worth $1.8 billion.

With the agreement, the city is taking "a major step toward bringing the Games back to our city for the first time in a generation," Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement.

He called it a "historic day for Los Angeles, for the United States" and the Olympic movement.

Unprecedented move

In an unprecedented move to award two Games at the same time after several other cities withdrew, the IOC's decision turned the spotlight on security challenges for Paris while giving Los Angeles ample time to upgrade its public transportation system.

"It is a win-win for the two cities," Canadian senior IOC member Dick Pound said.

The next Summer Olympics in 2020 is already scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan.

Los Angeles previously hosted the Games in 1932 and 1984. Paris hosted the games in 1924.

TRT World spoke to Jules Boykoff, author of Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics, on why the committee has chosen Los Angeles for the third time and Paris for the second when so many cities around the world have never hosted the games.

Three winners

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Twitter: "Happy that my friend @MayorofLA has made an important new step on an agreement that will have three winners: Paris, Los Angeles and the IOC #Paris2024."

LA city council member Gil Cedillo tweeted "hashtag goes from #LA2024 to #LA2028."

Lima meeting

Los Angeles had been in a race with Paris for 2024, with the winner to be named by the IOC on September 13 in Lima.

But the possibility that Los Angeles would abandon a 2024 bid and instead accept the 2028 Games had been growing since the IOC decided in July that in an unprecedented move it would attempt to award both Games at its Lima meeting.

Paris had remained insistent on hosting in 2024, on the 100th anniversary of the city's 1924 Olympics.