The IOC on Thursday made a public call for bids to host the 2024 Summer Olympics with a host of major cities already preparing their campaigns.
The Olympic government body sent out letters to all 205 member committees inviting bids.
"The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today launched the bid process for the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in 2024," said a statement announcing the campaign.
Following reforms that IOC president Thomas Bach pushed through in December aiming to make the Olympics cheaper and easier to compete for, this was the first time the invitation has been sent out.
Countries have until September 15 to make a first official application but heavyweight campaigns are already being built up.
"There has been strong interest in hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, with the NOCs of Germany, Italy and the United States already indicating their intention to bid," said the statement.
The United States has said that it will put forward Boston, while Rome will lead an Italian bid and Germany will enter Berlin or Hamburg.
Paris is also strongly expected to enter the race while the Qatar capital Doha and Turkey's Istanbul are considering applications.
South Africa is also weighing up whether to put forward a groundbreaking nationwide bid using facilities in several cities, including Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria.
The IOC passed major reforms in December to allow joint bids between cities, and in exceptional cases between countries, and also aiming to bring down the cost of Olympic candidate campaigns.
Bach has also stressed the need to make Olympic Games more sustainable including by using existing facilities, rather than building new stadiums which often end up as white elephants.
As part of the new stance, the IOC and potential bid cities will be "invited to discuss their initial ideas with the IOC and receive various levels of assistance and feedback ahead of the September 15 deadline for officially committing to a bid," said the statement.
A final decision on the host will be taken in mid 2017 at an IOC executive meeting in Lima.
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