Munich picked for Germany's bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2036, 2040 or 2044

BADEN-BADEN, Germany — Munich will bid to bring the Olympics back to Germany for the first time in more than 60 years after seeing off a rival bid from Cologne to become the focus of the country's push to host a Summer Games.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced Munich as the selection at a glitzy event hosted by the German Olympic Sports Confederation on Saturday. He said it was a "huge opportunity for the whole of Germany."

With the exception of soccer games in Stuttgart and sailing in the northern city of Kiel, Munich would stage the rest of the Olympic and Paralympic competitions.

Germany hasn't settled on when it wants to host the Games and is targeting a potential event in 2036, 2040 or even 2044.

That would be at least 62 years since the last Olympics in Germany. The 1972 Summer Games in Munich were overshadowed when 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian militants.

The Munich bid scored top on a German Olympic committee evaluation of the cities' sports facilities and international appeal published Wednesday. It boasted local support after the bid was approved in a referendum by a two-thirds majority last year.

The Cologne-based bid would have spread venues through 15 towns and cities across the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia, including several in the post-industrial landscape of the Ruhr valley.

Berlin withdrew its bid Thursday after coming a distant third in the evaluation and struggling with a lack of popular backing. Local politicians championing the bid had declined to hold a referendum, and their hopes were dealt a major blow last week when they lost support in local elections won by the Left party, whose local leader opposed the bid. A bid from Hamburg was dropped after it again lost a referendum in May.

The potential for a German bid for 2036 — 100 years since Berlin held the Olympics under Nazi rule — has been controversial. Steinmeier's office indicated to German media earlier this year he'd prefer 2040 or 2044 to avoid the centenary, but since signaled he'd accept a 2036 bid, too.

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