Monday, September 8, 2008

Bids for Olympic Games

Countries around the world have selected cities within their national territory to put forward bids for hosting the Olympic Games. Since the creation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, which successfully revived the Ancient Greek Olympics into what is currently their modern version, the interested cities have rivaled for the selection as host city of the Summer Olympic Games (or Games of the Olympiad) or Winter Olympic Games.

What follows is a list of the cities that have bid to host any of the Summer and Winter Olympics. Olympics have been chosen to be held in 50 cities (including repeats) since its "rebirth", twice in Eastern Europe, 5 times in East Asia, once in Central America, and the remainder in Western nations. No African, South American, Central Asian, Middle Eastern or South Asian nation has ever been chosen as host for the Olympics.

Typically, the decision is made at an IOC session approximately seven years prior to the games; for example the 2012 Summer Olympics were awarded to London on July 6, 2005 and the decision for the 2016 games will be made in July 2009.

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