Paris Olympic Games 2024 more likely as LA agrees 2028

The Agence France Presse confirmed yesterday that Los Angeles had agreed with the IOC that it would host the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, after an ongoing series of discussions between the Californian city, the IOC, and Paris.

Paris has not yet been officially confirmed at the host of 2024, with the mayor of the capital, Anne Hidalgo tweeting that discussions between LA, the IOC and Paris would continue throughout August, in a bid to reach an agreement that would favour all three parties.

The final decision will be made in a vote in Lima, Peru on 13 September.

Both Paris and Los Angeles were effectively simultaneously awarded the prize of hosting one of the 2024 or 2028 Summer Olympic Games, after all other competitors pulled out of the running, and both cities were commended for their strong applications.

However, up until now it had not been clear which city would host in which year.

Paris has always favoured 2024, so as to align with the city’s 100th anniversary of its hosting of the 1924 Games, while President Emmanuel Macron has also commented that “the values of Olympianism are our [French] values. They are threatened, and being questioned by many today. This is the best time to defend our values of openness, tolerance, justice, and respect for the environment. This is everything that the Paris candidacy wants to defend.”

Los Angeles - which hosted the Games previously in 1984 and 1932 - has now been confirmed as ready to receive funds from the IOC to help it with its long planning stage, while France seems ever more likely to officially take on the baton for 2024.

At the time of the official announcement that Paris and Los Angeles were in the running, IOC president Thomas Bach said: “We have an opportunity here, with two excellent candidates from two huge Olympic nations.”