History is about to be made.
International Olympic Committee members have voted to amend the Olympic charter and allow for the host cities of the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games to be determined simultaneously.
The proposal, agreed to by an apparently unanimous show-of-hands vote in Lausanne, Switzerland, all but guarantees Paris and Los Angeles each will host another Olympics. Still to be determined: which city will get which Games.
That decision should be finalized at the Sept. 13 IOC meeting in Lima, Peru. In the meantime, the IOC's executive board is charged with bringing all parties to an agreement on hosting rights.
This is what has been agreed today by the #IOC for the 2024 & 2028 #Olympics https://t.co/QX7lWCfx1I @LA2024 @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/tZ9MSwaykI
— insidethegames (@insidethegames) July 11, 2017
While both cities' bid committees have insisted throughout the process that hosting in 2024 is their top priority, the Los Angeles group has shown more willingness in its public statements than the Paris group to step back and host in 2028.
"Today, two of the world's greatest cities, with outstanding but different proposals, stand ready to serve and advance the Olympic and Paralympic movements and their values," LA 2024's leadership said in a release. "We look forward to working with the IOC and Paris in the weeks ahead to turn this golden opportunity into a golden future together."
There is still a chance the parties could fail to come to an agreement and IOC members would vote only on the 2024 host in September, as scheduled, but given the months of work IOC president Thomas Bach and other officials have put into the 2024/2028 scheme, that outcome seems unlikely.
Mayors of LA and Paris join President Bach on stage to celebrate decision for double allocation of Olympic Games 2024 and 2028 pic.twitter.com/mL7svbg7l6
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) July 11, 2017
