Olympics: Germany set to bid for 2024, 2028 Summer Games

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DSOB) on Saturday voted unanimously to bid to host either the 2024 or 2028 Summer and Paralympic Games at a general meeting in Dresden.

All 456 members present voted in favour of starting the process to launch a bid with a decision on whether Hamburg or Berlin will be used as the host city due to be made at an extraordinary general meeting in March 2015.

A referendum will be held in the relevant city to allow the general public to say whether they want to host an Olympics, which is a pre-requisite for a bid.

An application must then be submitted to the International Olympic Committee by January 8, 2016 at the latest and the host city for the 2024 Summer Games will be announced in 2017.

Should the DSOB fail in their 2024 bid, they would then re-submit an application to host the 2028 Summer Games.

Germany has not hosted an Olympics since tragedy-marred Munich Games in 1972 and their hopes of hosting the Winter Olympics were dashed when residents of the Bavarian capital voted against contesting the race for 2022 in a referendum in November 2013.