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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE

Five cities ‘interested’ in hosting 2024 Games

Five cities - Boston, Hamburg, Rome, Paris and Budapest - are "interested" in hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, the executive director of the Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee says.

Five cities 'interested' in hosting 2024 Games

"We have five cities who are interested," Christophe Dubi announced on Tuesday at the Olympic movement's headquarters in the Vaud capital.

Cities have until September 15th to enter bids and the IOC will make a decision in mid-2017.

Paris is close to entering an intense Olympic battle.

The French capital that lost out to London for the 2012 Games has only to officialize its candidature after backing from the Paris City Hall in April.

French President François Hollande last month visited IOC headquarters to cheerlead the Paris bid during his two-day official visit to Switzerland.
   
The United States has entered Boston, Rome will lead an Italian bid. 

Germany will enter Hamburg if a city referendum gives support.

And Budapest have now expressed interest in discussing the conditions to become an official candidate.
   
Representatives from Budapest will meet the IOC on Thursday "in a discussion phase", said Dubi, stressing that this by no means suggests a definite bid by the Hungarian capital.
   
Paris will discuss their prospective bid with the IOC on June 3rd, followed by Rome in July, according to the Italian Olympic Committee.
   
"During these meetings in the 'invitation phase' we will discuss the projects of each of the cities and answer their questions," Dubi said.

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RUSSIA

Russian athletes lose appeal over Olympics ban

Forty-seven Russians implicated in doping lost a last-minute court bid to take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Friday, just hours before the opening ceremony.

Russian athletes lose appeal over Olympics ban
Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
The applicants, who included Korean-born speed skater Victor An, had asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn an International Olympic Committee decision not to invite them to Pyeongchang.
   
“The applications filed by Russian athletes and coaches have been dismissed,” the CAS said in a statement.
   
The Russian situation has proved highly contentious in the build-up to Pyeongchang, after their team was banned but a certain number of “clean” Russian athletes were allowed to take part as neutrals.
   
Fifteen of those who lost their bids on Friday were among a group of 28 who controversially had life bans from the Olympics overturned last week by CAS, which cited insufficient evidence.
  
The other 32, including An, biathlon gold medallist Anton Shipulin and Sergei Ustyugov, a cross-country skiing world champion, were omitted from the list of Russians invited to Pyeongchang.
   
“In its decisions, the CAS arbitrators have considered that the process created by the IOC to establish an invitation list of Russian athletes to compete as Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) could not be described as a sanction but rather as an eligibility decision,” CAS said.
   
However, the CAS decision may not be the end of the matter. A source close to the IOC has told AFP that the 47 Russians have also lodged a case with a Swiss civil court in Lausanne.
   
A spokesman for the neutral Russian team, the 'Olympic Athletes from Russia', declined to comment when approached by AFP.