Bids for the Olympic Games

The bid process has gone through multiple iterations: it has generally involved the presentation of one or more candidate cities to the delegates of the IOC, which then elect the host during an IOC Session. Beginning in 2008, prospective cities submitted an application questionnaire to the IOC, which shortlisted candidates based on their technical capability of hosting the Olympics. An IOC panel then conducted further evaluations of the candidate cities, including issuing the city a second questionnaire known as the candidature file, and in-person visits to each candidate city by members of the panel. These evaluations were used to compile reports distributed to the IOC's delegates prior to the host election.

In 2019, the bid process was overhauled to use persistent "Future Host Commissions", with which candidate cities and regions may engage in non-committal "continuous dialogue" regarding a bid for a future Olympic Games. Based on these discussions, a Future Host Commission may recommend one or more candidate cities to enter into "targeted dialogue" with the IOC to establish a formal bid.

Bid process

The Olympic bid process is governed by Chapter 5, Rule 34 of the Olympic Charter, and typically consisted of the submission of bids by hosting committees to the IOC via their National Olympic Committee (NOC). The candidate cities were voted on by the IOC's members to determine the host of the Games, with the Olympic Charter originally specifying that the vote be held seven years prior to the Games. During the election for the host of the 2006 Winter Olympics, the IOC utilized an electoral college to shortlist the field to two candidates for the final vote.

The first bid system faced allegations of corruption in the 1990s (especially during the bids for the 2000 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics), including bid committees bribing IOC delegates and their families with gifts (including expenses-paid trips to candidate cities) in an effort to sway the vote.

Second system

Following the 2002 Winter Olympics' bid scandal, the IOC modified the bid process to introduce minimum technical standards for applicant cities, a commission to formally visit and evaluate candidate cities, and reduce involvement by IOC members until the final vote (including limits on gifts, and prohibiting unnecessary travel to applicant cities by IOC members).

Beginning with the bids for the 2008 Summer Olympics, a new two-stage process was introduced. In the first phase, cities interested in hosting the Games submitted an application to the IOC via their NOC. These applicant cities were then issued a questionnaire to evaluate their capability to host the Olympics: the questionnaire covered technical criteria such as political and social support, past experience, finances, environment, and plans for infrastructure, venues, the Olympic Village, transportation, accommodations, and security. An IOC working group assigned each city a weighted-average score based on their responses to the questionnaire.

Based on these evaluations, the IOC Executive Board then shortlisted multiple candidate cities to advance to the second phase. Each bid committee submitted a more extensive questionnaire known as a "candidature file" to the IOC Evaluation Commission, a group composed of IOC members, representatives of international sport federations, NOCs, and the International Paralympic Committee, as well as athletes and international experts in various fields. The members of the Evaluation Commission then made four-day visits to each of the candidate cities, where they inspected the proposed venues and were briefed on the topics covered in the candidature file. The Evaluation Commission submitted a report to the IOC's delegates up to one month before the electing IOC Session.

The IOC Session in which a host city is elected took place in a country that did not submit an application to stage the Olympics. The election was made by the assembled active IOC members (excluding honorary and honour members), each possessing one vote. Members from countries that have a city taking part in the election could not vote while their city was in the running. The voting was conducted as a series of runoffs until one bid achieved an absolute majority of votes; if this did not happen in the first round, the bid with the fewest votes was eliminated and another voting round began. In the case of a tie for the lowest number of votes, a special runoff vote was carried out, with the winner proceeding to the next round. After each round, the eliminated bid was announced. Following the announcement of the host city, the successful bid delegation signed the "Host City Contract" with the IOC, which delegates the responsibilities of the Games organisation to the city and respective NOC.

Several bids conducted under the second system later became the subject of corruption investigations. In 2017, Brazilian investigators alleged that a US$2 million payment had been arranged in connection with efforts to secure votes for Rio de Janeiro's successful bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The allegations involved former Brazilian Olympic Committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman, former Rio de Janeiro governor Sérgio Cabral, and former IOC member and IAAF president Lamine Diack. In 2024, a Brazilian federal court annulled related convictions after finding that the judge lacked legal competence to rule on the case.

The successful Tokyo 2020 bid also became the subject of scrutiny. Reuters reported in 2020 that marketing agency Dentsu had donated more than US$6 million to the bid campaign and lobbied IOC members on Tokyo's behalf, creating what Reuters described as a potential conflict of interest because the company also had a separate commercial relationship with the IOC.

Third system

At the 134th IOC Session on 24 June 2019 in Lausanne, the IOC ratified a new Olympic bid process based on the recommendations of Olympic Agenda 2020. The new process establishes Future Host Commissions (FHCs) for the Summer and Winter Olympics respectively. Cities and regions interested in hosting a future Olympic Games enter into non-committal "continuous dialogue" with the FHC. As a result of continuous dialogue, the FHC may recommend one or more preferred host(s) to enter into "targeted dialogue" with the IOC Executive Board to negotiate a formal bid for a specific Olympic Games. Following targeted dialogue, the candidate(s) are then elected via a referendum to the IOC's delegates.

The new process was described as being more "consultative" and emphasizing flexibility for hosts and sustainability; president Thomas Bach explained that the IOC needed to "keep up with the fast pace of change in our current world", and that "flexibility is a necessity to ensure good governance and to have sustainable Olympic Games in the future", while "maintaining the magic of the Games, the fundamental principle of universality and our commitment to having athletes at the centre of everything we do." The process was employed for the first time during the bids for the 2032 Summer Olympics; German officials, including Bundestag sports committee chairwoman Dagmar Freitag, criticized the new system for lacking transparency after Brisbane was chosen as sole candidate over Rhine-Ruhr.

In June 2025, shortly after succeeding Bach as IOC president, Kirsty Coventry announced a pause and review of the future-host election process. Reuters reported that IOC members had called for greater involvement in host selection and that, under Bach's leadership, the IOC Executive Board had presented a single preferred candidate to members for approval. The IOC established a working group to review the process.

Associated amendments to the Olympic Charter also allow for more flexibility in when the electing session is held, and also enable bids to formally consist of one or more cities, regions, or countries rather than only cities. This strategy became apparent when the 2030 Winter Olympics were awarded to the French Alps, and the 2034 Winter Olympics' were billed as "Salt Lake City—Utah 2024" and, later "Utah 2034", to emphasize the Games' use of venues outside of Salt Lake City (as opposed to the 2002 Winter Olympics, which were billed as simply "Salt Lake 2002").

In June 2026, the IOC Executive Board proposed the addition of a "strategic dialogue" phase between the two existing phases, which would provide additional opportunities for the Board to evaluate proposals extended by the Future Host Commission.