Budapest has become the latest city to bow out of contention to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, leaving Los Angeles and Paris as the only candidates bidding to stage the Games.

The Hungarian city joined Rome and Hamburg in exiting the 2024 race after lukewarm public support doomed the bid. According to local media outlets, the official reasoning behind the pullout was the potential "loss of prestige" the city would suffer if its underdog bid didn't emerge as the winner.

According to Reuters, a poll released earlier Wednesday showed 56 percent of Budapest voters opposed a bid, while only a third of all Hungarians supported it.

The city's withdrawal followed a troubling recent trend for the Olympic movement, which has seen increasing reluctance from governments to follow through on the lengthy and expensive bidding and hosting process.

Bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics came down to just two finalists in 2015, Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, after Oslo dropped out months before the Games were eventually awarded to the Chinese city.

And of course Los Angeles is only in the mix for 2024 because the United States Olympic Committee's initial choice to bid for that summer's Games, Boston, pulled out in the face of heavy public opposition.

While Budapest's withdrawal should solidify support for a Paris Games among the European voting bloc, geographic diversity could work in Los Angeles' favor. European cities have hosted two Summer and two Winter Olympics since the last U.S.-based Games, Salt Lake 2002, and IOC president Thomas Bach has consistently encouraged a U.S. bid after the country stayed out of the running for the 2020 Summer Games.

Los Angeles has already hosted the Games twice, in 1932 and 1984.

The host country for 2024 will be announced at the IOC meetings in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 13. </s> Los Angeles is now one of two cities bidding for the 2024 Olympics after reports that Budapest has dropped out of the bid.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Hungary pulled the bid, and Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs confirmed the withdrawal to The Associated Press. That leaves L.A. and Paris as the final two cities contending to host the Games. The International Olympic Committee is set to select a host on Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru.

Budapest faced the prospect of a referendum after a group called Momentum gathered enough signatures to force one.

Rome pulled out of the bidding for the Games in October. Hamburg withdrew its bid in late 2015 after residents of the German city voted against it.

Los Angeles was tapped to replace Boston in August 2015 after the U.S. Olympic Committee’s bid city faced vocal opposition and a lack of political support.

Budapest’s departure follows in line with many other cities opting out of bidding for the Games. In the past two cycles, the IOC has seen twice as many cities (eight) drop out of the bidding process as have remained.

The IOC selected Beijing over Almaty, Kazakhstan, as the host of the 2022 Olympics.

In an effort to reduce the cost of bidding and hosting the Games, the IOC has introduced Agenda 2020 reforms that apply fully for the first time to cities bidding for 2024.

IOC president Thomas Bach has said he is open to awarding the 2024 and 2028 Olympics simultaneously in September. In December, he expressed concerned about a candidature process that produces “too many losers.”

For their part, L.A. 2024 and the U.S. Olympic Committee have said they’re focused on winning the bid for 2024. </s> Budapest follows Rome and Hamburg to withdraw, leaving Paris and Los Angeles in the running to host

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Budapest on Wednesday became the latest city to drop out of the race to host the 2024 Olympic Games, after a petition garnered enough signatures to force a referendum on their bid.

"As the necessary unity in Budapest has been lost, the bid has lost all of its chances," the government of right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced in a statement posted on its website.

"That is why the government of Hungary proposes to withdraw the candidacy from the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Budapest."

The Hungarian capital's decision leaves the battle to stage the 2024 Games between Paris and Los Angeles.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is due to reveal the winner on September 13.

Hamburg - following a referendum - and Rome had already pull out of the contest to succeed 2020 hosts Tokyo, both citing financial concerns.

Budapest's move was announced after the sports-mad Orban, a big champion of the bid, held talks with Budapest mayor Istvan Tarlos and the Hungarian Olympic Committee on Wednesday evening.

"Budapest will formally ask the city council to withdraw Hungary's candidacy in agreement with the government," Tarlos was quoted as saying by the MTI news agency after the meeting.

The mayor had previously said he could not "ignore the will of the people" in light of the referendum push.

Hungary's bid was dealt a fatal blow after a group of young activists collected over a quarter million signatures of Budapesters within a month to hold a vote on the bid.

The Momentum Movement (MoMo) announced last Friday that it had garnered some 266,000 signatures, almost double the threshold required to trigger a ballot.

Within 24 hours, the Hungarian firm in charge of organising the event suspended its operations while awaiting a decision.

The so-called "Nolimpia" drive had been aided by several opposition parties critical of Orban, prompting the government on Wednesday to accuse them of turning the matter "into a political party affair".

The strongman had backed the bid, launched in 2015, as a reward for his country's rich Olympic record: only nine countries have won more medals in the history of the Games.

Supporters said that Budapest, which unlike Paris or Los Angeles has never hosted the Games, was more suited than its rivals to the IOC's low-cost 'Agenda 2020' strategy.

But critics, fearing spiralling costs and corruption, said taxpayers should decide how their money is being spent.

Recent polls also showed clear majorities in favor of withdrawing the bid.

Opponents had tried several times to force a referendum on the issue but were blocked by either city hall or the supreme court.

"The people should have been asked two years ago exactly to avoid such a situation," said MoMo leader Andras Fekete-Gyor.

Budapest's city council, which holds a majority of Fidesz MPs, now needs to approve the bid's withdrawal.

"I am sorry to see a dream dissolve," the chief of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, Zsolt Borkai, said at a council meeting earlier Wednesday.

When questioned by AFP, Paris-2024 choose not to comment on the development from the Hungarian capital. – Rappler.com </s> Los Angeles is now one of two cities bidding for the 2024 Olympics after reports that Budapest has dropped out of the bid.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Hungary pulled the bid, leaving L.A. and Paris as the final two cities contending to host the Games. The International Olympic Committee is set to select a host on Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru.

Budapest faced the prospect of a referendum after a group called Momentum gathered enough signatures to force one.

Rome pulled out of the bidding for the Games in October. Hamburg withdrew its bid in late 2015 after residents of the German city voted against it.

Los Angeles was tapped to replace Boston in August 2015 after the U.S. Olympic Committee’s bid city faced vocal opposition and a lack of political support. </s> LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Budapest is withdrawing its bid to to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, leaving only Los Angeles and Paris to compete for the games, according to reports.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs confirmed the decision to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The decision awaits approval by the Budapest City Assembly.

Hungary’s governing party said the decision was an attempt to avoid “a loss of international prestige” if Budapest were to be passed over by the Olympic committee in favor of Los Angeles or Paris.

The party said it perceived Budapest’s chances of winning the bid to be quite small.

The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city in September. </s> Budapest will withdraw its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, leaving only Los Angeles and Paris in the race.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs confirmed the withdrawal to the Associated Press on Wednesday. The joint decision by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos and the Hungarian Olympic Committee will be formally voted on by the Budapest City Assembly.

Fidesz, the governing party, said the decision was made to avoid “a loss of international prestige” for Hungary, saying the bid had a very small chance of success.

The bid was expected to face a citywide referendum promoted by a new political party, which gathered more than 266,000 signatures in favor of holding the vote.

The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to choose the 2024 host city in September. </s> BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Budapest will withdraw its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, leaving only Los Angeles and Paris in the race.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs confirmed the withdrawal to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The joint decision by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos and the Hungarian Olympic Committee will be formally voted on by the Budapest City Assembly, where Orban's governing Fidesz party has a comfortable majority.

The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city in September.

Fidesz officials said the decision was made to avoid a loss of prestige for Hungary.

"When the opposition attacked the Budapest bid in the back, it disrupted this unity (of support for the bid) and minimalized the chances of the capital city," Fidesz parliamentary leader Lajos Kosa said in a statement. "Today only one responsible decision is possible to avoid Hungary's loss of international prestige."

The bid was expected to face a city-wide referendum promoted by the Momentum Movement, a new political party, which in 30 days gathered more than 266,000 signatures in favor of holding a vote. The referendum drive also drew the support of some other opposition parties.

Several earlier attempts to hold national or Budapest referendums on the Olympics were either blocked by the courts or abandoned.

Earlier Wednesday, officials were already hinting at a withdrawal as a drawn out referendum campaign and faltering popular support for the Olympics were seen as hurting Orban's party in next year's parliamentary elections.

Bid chairman Balazs Furjes said it made no sense to continue the effort unless widespread political support was restored, describing Budapest's bid as a "lame duck" in the current political climate.

Budapest has "never been as close as now to obtaining the Olympics ... but now it seems there won't be a good outcome," Furjes told the city assembly.

Zsolt Borkai, chairman of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, said the opposition parties had turned against the bid because of their own political interests.

"Now, near the finish line, they are destroying the dream which they earlier supported," Borkai claimed.

Furjes gave several reasons why he thought Budapest had a good chance of winning its bid. These included the city being seen as a model for the IOC's "Agenda 2020" reforms to streamline events and cut costs and the fact that both Los Angeles and Paris have each already hosted the Summer Olympics twice.

Opponents of the bid have highlighted concerns about the environment, corruption risks and overspending. </s> BUDAPEST, Hungary– It’s down to Los Angeles and Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Budapest decided to withdraw its bid to host the games this afternoon.

The decision was made to avoid “a loss of international prestige” for Hungary, according to the Associated Press. Hungary’s bid reportedly had a very small chance of success.

The remaining two candidate cities will be up for an IOC vote to determine the host in September.

Previously, Hamburg (Germany) and Rome (Italy) withdrew their 2024 Olympic bids. The last time only two cities were finalists for a Summer Olympics was back in 1988, when it was down to Seoul (Korea) and Nagoya (Japan.) The 2022 Winter Games also came down to two cities: Beijing (China) and Almaty (Kazakhstan.)

Los Angeles and Paris are bidding to host the games for a record-tying third time. Only London (England) has done that. L.A. previously hosted in 1932 and 1984, while Paris hosted in 1900 and 1924.

The United States hasn’t hosted a Summer Games since 1996 (when it was in Atlanta, Georgia) and a Winter Games since 2002 (when it was in Salt Lake City, Utah.) </s> IOC Expects To Award Paris And Los Angeles 2024 And 2028 Olympics

Enlarge this image toggle caption Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

The International Olympic Committee decided Tuesday that Paris and Los Angeles can work out a deal to be awarded the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games.

The committee's members voted unanimously that it can award both Olympics at its next meeting in September and that a three-way deal can be brokered among the two cities and the IOC.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo joined IOC President Thomas Bach on stage in Lausanne, Switzerland. Bach raised their hands in the air in a pose of shared victory.

"With Los Angeles and Paris, there are two fantastic cities from countries with a profound Olympic history," Bach said, according to the Associated Press.

Paris and Los Angeles are the only remaining contestants in the 2024 contest, after Boston; Budapest, Hungary; Hamburg, Germany; and Rome all dropped out. If the parties can't reach a deal, the IOC will name a host city for only 2024 at its next meeting.

The cities and the IOC will undertake final negotiations in the coming weeks. Either or both of the cities would need to be willing to host the 2028 Games if not awarded the 2024 Games, Reuters reports.

The IOC's decision locks in two major world cities years in advance and means the city that loses 2024 can avoid going through an arduous campaign to bid for 2028. Paris lost recent bids to host the 2008 and 2012 games.

Paris has been pushing hard for the 2024 Games, which would mark 100 years since it last hosted the Olympics. The Los Angeles Times reports that LA is expected to agree to host the 2028 Olympics; it could ask for concessions, such as a larger share of IOC revenue, in return for waiting. Los Angeles has proposed using the city's existing venues, boasting that it would not need to build any new permanent facilities to host the games.

"We take nothing for granted," Garcetti told reporters at a news conference afterward, the Times reports. "Our job now is to work with the IOC, to forge a path forward for our city and for the future of this [Olympic] movement."

Garcetti said the Olympics "can't afford to lose the United States," the AP reports. The Washington Post has reported that NBC single-handedly pays for much of the games: The network accounted for 62 percent of the IOC's broadcast revenue at the Sochi Games in Russia in 2014. New York and Chicago lost their bids for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Los Angeles last hosted the 1984 Olympics. </s> >Lima: The International Olympic Committee will crown Paris and Los Angeles as hosts for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics in Lima on Wednesday, delivering a welcome feel-good factor amid a gathering storm of corruption allegations.

For the first time since the awarding of the 1984 Olympics, when only one city was in the race, the traditional frenzy of last-minute lobbying, politicking and schmoozing will be strikingly absent in Lima.

In a historic move, the IOC brokered an agreement that will see Paris handed the 2024 Games with Los Angeles awarded 2028, an outcome that all sides are declaring as victory in a "win-win-win" deal.

IOC members will ratify the agreement following 25-minute presentations by Paris and Los Angeles, the last two cities left in the race for the 2024 Olympics.

"It's a big win and we are here to really enjoy it," said Paris 2024 bid co-chief Tony Estanguet, reflecting the triumphant mood amongst the French delegation as Wednesday's vote neared.

Los Angeles 2028 officials meanwhile insisted they are satisfied with the deal which means the Californian city will have to wait 11 more years before it stages the Olympics for a third time.

The city will receive roughly $100 million more than Paris in IOC funding for the games, a financial sweetener that delivers "a frankly much better economic result", according to 2028 bid chief Casey Wasserman.

"We think the result is extraordinary," Wasserman told AFP. "We'll be celebrating on Wednesday night and through the weekend in LA for sure."

IOC chief President Thomas Bach, the driving force behind the double award, described the candidacies of Paris and Los Angeles as a "golden opportunity."

"For the IOC it would have been a huge mistake not seize this golden opportunity," Bach said Monday.

Wednesday's vote marks the conclusion of a mostly good-natured bidding campaign notable for the number of cities who withdrew from the race citing waning public support and concerns over budget.

Hamburg, Rome, Budapest and Boston all fell by the wayside during the competition, reflecting the political difficulties in persuading voters that staging the Olympics is worth the multi-billion-dollar price tag.

IOC chief Bach first signalled publicly that the double-award of an Olympics could be on the agenda in December last year, lamenting that the bidding process produced "too many losers."

As the bidding battle for 2024 unfolded, and as the field thinned to leave Los Angeles and Paris as the last bids standing, the IOC's determination to lock in two high-quality cities for the next two summer games became apparent.

Los Angeles and Paris, whose bids emphasise a high-level of venue readiness, both wowed the IOC's Evaluation Commission during back-to-back visits in May.

In July, the IOC announced it would award the staging rights for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics at the same meeting in Lima.

The drama-free conclusion also guarantees the IOC will not have to confront the explosive fall-out from the vote for the 2016 Olympics, which detonated spectacularly last week when investigators in Brazil swooped on the country's Olympics chief Carlos Nuzman.

Nuzman stands accused of plotting to bribe IOC members into awarding Rio de Janeiro the 2016 Games at a 2009 vote in Copenhagen.

Former IOC member Nuzman was taken in for questioning with his passport confiscated and a search of his house unearthing around $150,000 worth in cash in various currencies.

Brazilian police later said they are probing "an international corruption scheme" aimed at "the buying of votes for the election of (Rio) by the International Olympic Committee as the venue for the 2016 Olympics."

The charges swirling around Rio's bid revive memories of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, which led to 20 IOC members being either kicked out of the Olympics' ruling body or pleading guilty to accepting bribes for votes.

French investigators meanwhile have already announced they are investigating the 2013 vote in Buenos Aires which awarded the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo, following reports of secret payments into a Singapore-based bank account linked to the son of disgraced former world athletics chief Lamine Diack. View More
Budapest withdraws its bid, leaving Paris and Los Angeles as the two candidate cities for hosting the 2024 competition.