Germany's Olympic Sports Confederation is recommending Hamburg as the country's sole representative for the 2024 Olympic bidding process. With the decision, the German capital Berlin misses out as a possible candidate.
Hamburg was picked on Monday as Germany's preferred choice for a 2024 summer Olympics bid ahead of Berlin, with the German Olympic Sports Confederation's (DOSB) members to ratify the proposal later this week.
The DOSB board opted for Olympic newcomers Hamburg instead of Berlin, who hosted the Games in 1936, after an all-day meeting on Monday 16 March 2015 following polls last week that showed Hamburg citizens were more in favour of the Games (64%) than the capital's residents (55%).
But it was also Germany's 33 top sports federations that gave a majority to Hamburg, with 18 in favour of the port city and 11 for the capital. Four federations voted for both cities.
DOSB chairman Alfons Hoermann told reporters that the experts, who briefed the board after the cities' presentations, helped swing the board's votes in favour of Hamburg. "It was not an easy choice. Without naming all the reasons... the poll was an important role, the vote of the sports federations, and thirdly today's experts' round of discussion," he said.
Boston, Rome, Paris, Doha, Istanbul and Baku have already officially launched their candidacy. The deadline is 15 September 2015.
Photo © LL-foto
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