List of Olympic Bids

The Olympic bidding process takes many years and much deliberation by members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Cities begin the bids to host summer or winter Olympic games up to 10 years in advance, so the process for choosing the site of the 2020 summer games, for example, is already under way.

  1. Summer 2016 Games

    • Rio de Janeiro won the 2016 bid.

      The final applicants for the 2016 summer Olympic games were Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. On October 2, 2009 in Copenhagen, Rio de Janeiro was selected to host the games. This decision was made in part due to that city's success in hosting the 2007 Pan Am games, and also because no South American city has ever hosted the Olympic games. In the summer of 2014, Rio will be hosting the World Cup.

    Winter 2018 Games

    • On July 6, 2011, the winner of the bidding for the winter 2018 Olympic games will be announced in Durban, South Africa. The three final candidates that are up for the bid are Annecy, France, which is near Switzerland, PyeongChang, South Korea, and Munich, Germany. According an online Olympic bid rating system, PyeongChang is currently the most likely candidate to win the bid.

    Summer 2020 Games

    • Although the applicants won't officially apply until Sept. 1, 2011, and the winner won't be decided until two years later, there are already a host of cities that have expressed interest in hosting the games in 2020. Possible candidates include Budapest; Busan, South Korea; Cape Town, South Africa; Durban, South Africa; Delhi, India; Rome; Doha, Qatar; Hiroshima and Tokyo, Dubai; Istanbul and Madrid, although it is speculated that the Japanese pair of cities may drop their bid after the earthquake and tsunami that caused so much damage there.

    Winter 2022 Games

    • 2022, it seems, is finally far enough in the future that not many concrete candidates for the winter games of this year have stepped forth. Some sure bets for the bidding process are Switzerland (no specific city has been put forth) and Reno-Tahoe. Kazakhstan, New Zealand, and Norway have also all expressed an interest.