Rome enters race to host 2024 Olympics

Rome - Rome has formally submitted its bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Mayor Ignazio Marino, bid leader Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malago signed the candidate application on Friday at City Hall and sent it to the International Olympic Committee.

A statement from the bid committee says it wishes to host Olympic competition "in the most spectacular and symbolic places of the Eternal City."

Hamburg, Germany, sent in its letter on Wednesday.

Paris, Los Angeles, and Budapest, Hungary, are other declared bidders.

The IOC deadline for formal submission of bid entries is Tuesday. The host city will be selected in 2017.

Rome, which hosted the 1960 Games, was the first city to announce its bid last year.