Madrid to keep bidding for Olympic Games

MADRID will again bid for the Summer Olympics despite losing out in the race to hold the 2012 and 2016 Games.

FAILED BID: Alberto Ruiz Gallardon presents the Madrid bid for the 2016 Olympic Games
last October but the city lost out to Rio de Janiero (Getty Images)

The mayor of the Spanish capital Alberto Ruiz Gallardon told television channel TVE that they would choose to bid for either the 2020 or 2024 Games after the next local elections take place.

Gallardon, who is standing for re-election in 2011, had initially said that the city was unsure about bidding again after losing out to Rio de Janeiro in the final round of voting for the 2016 Games last year.

Having previously lost out to London for 2012, Madrid spent 37.8m Euros in its bid for the 2016 Olympics but it was always going to struggle given the unspoken rule that host cities are rotated between continents.

But Madrid's mayor is hoping by the time the Olympics come around next decade, it will be the turn of Europe and time for the Spaniards to put on a fiesta like that of Barcelona 1996.

"Madrid will be an Olympic city but we should not talk about presenting the city for a third and a fourth time," said Gallardon.

"We have to have a third possibility and ensure that it is definitive.

"It is not in our hands now. It will have to be the next administration elected by the people of Madrid that makes the choice.

"Madrid has not lost anything in trying for the 2012 and 2016 Games, on the contrary, it earned a higher profile and saw both tourism and the city's importance increase."

Madrid's attitude is in stark contrast to the US Olympic Committee, who announced earlier in the week that it would not be putting forward a host city bid for the 2020 Games after they too had been snubbed twice in the past eight years.