Chicago Olympic bid likely will be last for U.S. for a while

The country that has hosted the most Olympics will have to wait at least another 11 years for sport’s biggest party if Chicago loses a bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

Regardless of what happens Friday, when the International Olympic Committee will pick Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo, the U.S. Olympic Committee likely won’t produce another Olympic bid until 2020.

Chances are Denver is out of the mix for the 2018 Winter Games since the IOC deadline for national Olympic committees to submit applicant cities is Oct. 15. USOC acting chief executive officer Stephanie Streeter has denied rumors of a behind-the-scenes Denver bid and maintains the USOC can’t “put something together that would be credible.”

The U.S. has staged a record eight Olympics — four in the summer and four in the winter. Atlanta hosted in 1996 and Salt Lake City in 2002. New York failed in a bid for the 2012 Olympics, awarded to London, and the USOC didn’t try for 2010, to be held in Vancouver, or 2014, in Sochi, Russia.

U.S. cities examining 2020 bids include Birmingham, Ala., Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. Joint bids for 2022 are possible from Reno, Nev., and South Lake Tahoe, Calif., along with Montreal, Lake Placid, N.Y., and Albany, N.Y. There’s talk of a 2028 bid from Seattle and Vancouver.