AKIPRESS.COM - The U.S. Olympic Committee selected Boston on Thursday as the city it feels represents the best chance to return the Olympics to American soil, Washington Post said.

In bypassing Washington and two other cities for the right to bid on the 2024 Summer Games, USOC officials opted for a cost-efficient vision put forward by Boston’s supporters that relies heavily on the city’s array of universities and public spaces.

If the International Olympic Committee is as impressed with the Boston proposal as USOC officials were, the 2024 Olympics could include field hockey events at Harvard Stadium, archery at MIT and beach volleyball on the Boston Common. But IOC members have been cool to U.S. bids in recent years, and there hasn’t been a Summer Games staged here since the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

“We’re excited about our plans to submit a bid for the 2024 Games and feel we have an incredibly strong partner in Boston that will work with us to present a compelling bid,” USOC Chairman Larry Probst said in a statement Thursday evening. In addition to Washington, the other contending cities were Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Washington bid, chaired by local businessman Russ Ramsey and co-chaired by Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, included many of the area’s most prominent business and political leaders. It was centered around constructing a new stadium on the site of RFK Stadium and an Olympic Village and tennis center along the Anacostia River that organizers hoped would help revitalize some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

“All was not lost,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), who took an active role in presenting the city’s bid at a Dec. 16 USOC board meeting in Redwood City, Calif. “We must build on the tremendous regional and federal cooperation embodied in the . . . bid, in focusing on the big issues facing our region — transportation, affordable housing and expanding job opportunities for [D.C.] residents.”