US eyes Olympics host role after topping London tables

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado  (AFP) - United States (US) Olympic Committee (USOC) chairman Larry Probst says the US wants to bring the Olympics back to America in the wake of leading the gold and overall medal tables at London.

"Make no mistake, we do want to bid and we do want to win, but we will only bid if the business logic is as compelling as the sport logic," Mr Probst told the USOC annual assembly last weekend, according to a posting on the USOC website.

The stance comes after the US held off submitting bids for the 2018 Winter and 2020 Summer Olympics in the wake of failures by bids from New York for the 2012 Olympics and Chicago for the 2016 Olympics.

But a new deal last May between the USOC and International Olympic Committee over US-based broadcast and marketing revenues that runs from 2020 until 2040 removed what Mr Probst called "the largest single impediment to building the kind of international partnerships we've always desired with the Olympic movement".That could allow the Americans to capitalise on their 46 gold medals and overall haul of 104 medals from London by launching a bid for the 2024 Summer or 2026 Winter Olympics.