Following yesterday's Board meeting in Chicago, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun confirmed that the organisation is looking to develop a shortlist of potential candidates from ten to two or three by this December, before deciding whether to go ahead and bid for the 2024 Olympics during 2014.

"We are having discussions with a number of cities, a little more than ten right now, with a goal of getting down to two or three by the end of the year and a goal of making a decision whether or not we're going to bid for 2024 by the end of 2014 so that we can take nine months to prepare our hopefully strong bid if that's what we decide to do," Blackmun said.

He added that the USOC would not yet be discussing individual cities publicly and that negotiations are based on matters of capacity and infrastructure for now.


San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles, which would be aiming to host its third Olympics having hosted the Games in 1932 and 1984, appear to the be the most likely American cities for a bid.

There is also a potential joint bid from San Diego and Tijuana in Mexico, but that is against the Olympic Charter which rules that for the Summer Games a bid must come from an individual city. 

Should the US put forward a bid, they are expected to face competition from Paris - which in 2024 will be celebrating the 100th year anniversary of the last Olympics held in the French capital.

Berlin, Doha, Dubai, Durban, Nairobi, Rome and Toronto, Berlin are also reportedly considering bidding to host the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.

USOC chairman Larry Probst said the national body is keeping a close eye on the 2020 Olympic bidding process, ahead of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) vote in September, to see if it can learn anything from the presentations made by the candidates Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul.

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