The French say they won't host Olympics in 2028, which could hurt Los Angeles' 2024 bid

The team for Paris’ 2024 Olympic bid made a serious power play on Tuesday and it could have serious implications on the possibility of the Olympics returning to Los Angeles for the first time since 1984.

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With Paris and Los Angeles being the only remaining bidders for the 2024 Summer Games, there has been serious speculation that the International Olympic Committee would announce the sites of the next two Summer Games when the election for the 2024 site is held in Peru this September.

For the IOC, it would be a unprecedented compromise. But it would also be a prudent one. With the list of cities willing to shoulder the Olympics’ costly burden, it wouldn’t make sense to chase either away.

And while leadership for both cities have previously issued a general “meh” to that joint 2024-2028 idea, Paris 2024 bid co-chairman Tony Estanguet just drew a line in the sand.

“We’re OK if the IOC wants to give two games at the same session,” Estanguet told reporters in London. “But on our side, our project is only possible for ’24. We also believe this is the time to come back to Paris, or to Europe, in ’24. This is the fourth bid, we learnt a lot. It’s now or never.

“Either the IOC family wants to choose Paris for ’24 or we will not come back for ’28. We are not against the process, we welcome the process and understand the process, but our project is only possible for ’24.”

It’s hard to blame the French for turning the screws here. Paris previously staged three unsuccessful bids for the Summer Games in 1992 (when it went to Barcelona), 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London).

So there has to be a certain sense of “let’s finally get this over with” there.

As for Los Angeles, the city’s 2024 bid committee also said in a statement that they are only bidding for 2024. But it did not issue any ultimatums like Paris did.

“Los Angeles is the right city at this critical time for the Olympic Movement and is only bidding for 2024,” the LA bid team said in a statement. “With all permanent venues already built and 88 percent public support, only LA 2024 offers the lowest-risk and truly sustainable solution for the future of the Olympic Movement in 2024 and beyond.”

Needless to say, it will be fascinating to see how this plays out over the next six months. With the next three Olympics being staged in Asia, the IOC would likely welcome a competition held in a time zone that’s friendlier to NBC, its biggest benefactor. France also has biggest questions when it comes to terrorism.

Yet if the IOC thought the easy way out was to hand out a rain check, it appears to have another thing coming.