The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced today that Istanbul (Turkey), Tokyo (Japan) and Madrid (Spain) have made it on to the shortlist of cities bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The Candidate Cities were accepted from among five Applicant Cities, which also included Baku (Azerbaijan) and Doha (Qatar).
The three Candidate Cities will now be requested to prepare their Candidature File with an in-depth description of their Olympic project. They will also prepare for the visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission. The Evaluation Commission will make a detailed technical assessment of each candidature and publish a report in advance of the 2020 Briefing for IOC Members in July 2013.
The election of the host city will take place on 7 September 2013 at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina.