Six cities to compete for the 2020 Olympic Games

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (BNO NEWS) — The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday announced the six countries which will compete to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. Among the six are Spain and Japan who lost their bid to host the 2016 Games.

The announcement was made after a deadline expired. National Olympic Committees were required to notify the IOC by September 1st that a city within their jurisdiction was interested in applying to host the Games.

The cities which have come forward and applied for a chance to host the Games are Baku in Azerbaijan, Doha in Qatar, Istanbul in Turkey, Madrid in Spain, Rome in Italy, and Tokyo in Japan. They will now proceed to Phase 1 during which the IOC will conduct a technical review of cities to determine if they are able to host the massive sports event.

At the end of Phase 1, in May 2012, the IOC will select the cities that will become Candidate Cities and therefore move on to Phase 2. By the end of Phase 2, on September 7, 2013, the IOC will elect the Host City of the 2020 Olympic Games.

Spain, Italy, and Japan have all experience with hosting the Summer Olympics, while Azerbaijan, Qatar and Turkey have not. Both Italy and Japan also twice hosted Winter Games.

The 2020 Olympics are to be held between July 15 and August 31 in 2020, but Doha is requesting to hold the Games at the end of October and the start of November should it be chosen as the host city.

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19856/six-cities-to-compete-for-the-2020-olympic-games/.