Toronto will bid for 2024 Olympics; joins 5 others

TORONTO - The head of the Canadian Olympic Committee says Toronto will bid for the 2024 Olympics, joining a crowded field that already includes five cities.

Marcel Aubut, president of the COC, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation the city will use the Pan Am Games _ which end Sunday _ as a springboard.

Toronto joins Boston; Budapest, Hungary; Hamburg, Germany; Paris; Rome. Toronto lost recent bids to Atlanta for the 1996 games, and against Beijing for 2008.

Toronto enters as the bid of North American neighbor Boston flounders.

Toronto has built several Olympic-grade venues including a pool and cycling velodrome. Canada has spent 2.5 billion Canadian ($2 billion) organizing the Pan Am Games, 10 times what Winnipeg spent 16 years ago, and three times more than Guadalajara, Mexico, for the 2011 edition.