This week, six cities will move forward toward the dream of hosting the world’s greatest sporting event. Between 3 and 4 July, the cities of Istanbul (Turkey), Tokyo (Japan) and Madrid (Spain) will give a presentation of their bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games at an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Extraordinary session in Lausanne, Switzerland. Also on Thursday the 4th, three other cities will reach the last stage in the selection process of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Glasgow (United Kingdom) and Medellin (Colombia) will give their final presentations and will get to know the IOC votes.

The 2020 Candidate Cities Briefing for IOC Members, scheduled for this Wednesday, takes place after the release of the Evaluation Commission’s report for each city. During March 2013, Commission members, led by IOC Vice-President Craig Reedie, spent four days in each candidate city for inspections and observations about their projects. Each city will have 45 minutes to present the project’s technical aspects, besides answering questions.

The long host city selection process started already in 2011, when the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) appointed their cities that were nominated for the 2020 Games. In May 2012, Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid moved from applicant city to candidate city status, when they left behind Baku (Azerbaijan), Doha (Qatar) and Rome (Italy). Everything ends - or rather begins – on 7 September 2013, in Buenos Aires where the election of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games host city will take place during the 125th IOC Session.

Get to know more about the host cities selection process here (in English and French)

“We are very satisfied with the quality of each project and it’s clear to each one of us, IOC members, that we have to take a difficult decision in September”, said Reedie who leads the Evaluation Commission.

Watch the 2020 Olympic Games candidate cities promotional videos below