IOC to change process of Olympic bid races, host elections

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is changing up the rules for wannabe Olympic hosts.

It wants potential hosts to hold a referendum before entering their bids. This comes after the IOC was stung by recent public votes in Europe and Canada.

“We cannot, I suggest, continue to be damaged as we have in the past,” says veteran IOC member John Coates, according to the Associated Press.

The IOC is also trying to get hosts to save money by using existing venues rather than building new ones.

Furthermore, the IOC is pushing a new, flexible campaign timetable, which will end the Olympic Charter rule requiring hosts to be voted on seven years in advance of a Summer or Winter Games. That rule already had to be waived in 2017, allowing Los Angeles to be picked 11 years in advance of the 2028 Summer Games.

And IOC also isn’t a fan of leaving wannabe host feeling like losers. So they are gonna be creating Olympic panels — one each for Summer and Winter Games — which will recommend one or more candidates for an election.

“It can come to a point where there is only one candidate being proposed,” IOC President Thomas Bach says at a news conference.

And “host” doesn’t have to be limited to one place either: it can include multiple cities, regions, or countries.

To find out more about the changes sweeping through IOC, visit the AP website.