By Duncan Mackay at at the Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne

ChiangmaiJune 14 - Next year's General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) will be held in Chiangmai in Thailand and will be followed in 2015 by Washington DC and in 2016 Rio de Janeiro, it was announced here today. 


Both the meetings in 2014 and 2015 are expected to be held in November, following the decision by the ANOC Executive Council, while Rio's will take place in March so that National Olympic Committees can visit the Brazilian city to have a final look at preparations before it becomes the first city in South America to host the Games.

Chiangmai is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand, regularly attracting more than five million visitors a year.

The United States last hosted the ANOC General Assembly in 1994 in Atlanta, ahead of the 1996 Olympics in the same city. 

Since Sydney in 2000, the Assembly has since traditionally been held in the city of the Games a few months before they open, although this was broken last year when the British Olympic Association (BOA) pulled out of hosting the event in London because of financial problems.

It was held instead in Moscow.

But the tradition will be restored for 2016 when they take place in Rio de Janeiro.

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