The process to elect Olympic hosts

The NOC and city or region can choose to enter a non-committal Continuous Dialogue with the IOC. This helps the potential host to explore and improve its Olympic project, without linking it to any specific Games edition or year. Upon entering a Continuous Dialogue, the potential host becomes known as an Interested Party. It will receive bespoke support from the IOC to help it design a Games plan and vision with maximum potential benefits for local communities.

This dialogue is flexible and does not require any financial commitment, written submission or other legal or financial guarantees. The IOC conducts a feasibility study to assess the state of progress of a project, help the Interested Party make improvements, and assist the IOC Executive Board (EB) with its strategic long-term outlook and decision-making.

Read more about the factors assessed during Continuous Dialogue.

The Executive Board will open Strategic Dialogue with selected Interested Parties from the pool in Continuous Dialogue which:

• meet the IOC’s technical criteria (IOC Feasibility Assessment) and;
• fully align with the Executive Board’s strategic direction for a specific edition of the Games.

In Strategic Dialogue, Interested Parties are expected to provide an initial response to the Future Host Questionnaire and core financial guarantees.

The IOC offers enhanced technical support and works with the Interested Parties to optimise their projects. The Future Host Commission makes site visits to the proposed host regions and prepares a report with a thorough analysis of the responses to the Future Host Questionnaire and the core guarantees submitted.

Based on the reports of the Future Host Commission, the EB will invite one or more Preferred Hosts into a Targeted Dialogue, which is the final stage before host election.

During Targeted Dialogue, the Preferred Hosts have an opportunity to update their submissions to address feedback provided by the Future Host Commission during Strategic Dialogue.

They also submit a full set of guarantees, to give maximum legal and financial security.

At the end of Targeted Dialogue, IOC Members receive a full report from the Future Host Commission.

If the Executive Board calls an election, the Preferred Host(s) will be invited to a meeting to present their project and discuss it with all the IOC Members. They will then give a final presentation to the IOC Session, which will be followed by the IOC Members voting by secret ballot. If elected, the Host will immediately sign the Olympic Host Contract with the IOC.