USA to bid for 2024 Olympics

The United States Olympic Committee will bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Committee will choose one host city from either Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Washington DC.

The International Olympic Committee's deadline for applicants is September 15 , 2015, with a decision due in 2017.

The last time the USA hosted a summer Olympics was in Atlanta in 1996, although Salt Lake City, Utah, hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002.

"An entire generation of Americans has not had the opportunity to witness the amazing spectacle of an Olympic and Paralympic Games on home soil."   "We believe it's important to bring the Games back to the United States to ensure the lasting strength of the movements,"said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun.

The US is the third country after Germany and Italy to officially launch a bidding process.

At an IOC meeting in Monaco earlier this month, a 40-point action plan was voted on to revamp the sporting showpiece.

Potential hosts will find it easier and cheaper to bid under the "Olympic Agenda 2020" reforms and events can be held outside the host country or city.

The 28-sport cap for future summer Olympics has been removed - although there will be no changes to the Rio 2016 schedule.

Instead of a 28-sport limit, each summer Games will be restricted to 10,500 athletes and 310 events. —BBC