28 years without the Summer Olympic Games in the U.S.

With the 11,000-plus athletes of the Rio Olympic Games having pushed the troubles of the host city to the back page, we are reminded of the extraordinary experience of seeing superhuman people achieving remarkable feats of sporting skill.

Now comes the question of when our country will again have the privilege of presenting the amazing gathering of those athletes from more than 200 countries on the world stage, promoting peace and unity along with more than 300 events among the 28 sports that make up the international competitions.

We won’t know the answer to that question until September of next year, when the decision is made by the International Olympic Committee on where the 2024 Summer Games will unfold.

The 2020 Olympics will take place in Tokyo. The U.S., for the first time in 20 years, did not submit a candidate city.

Los Angeles is among the four 2024 finalists from around the world. There’s some growing speculation that the city, which has successfully hosted the games twice before, would offer the best chance for the U.S. since the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Having served as the CEO of the North Texas bid to host the 2012 games, I learned a lot about the challenge any city faces when entering the complicated and political world of the IOC’s decision-making process.

In spite of a proposal that fully demonstrated our region’s ability to produce an outcome as successful as any city in the world had ever accomplished, we never had a chance of being selected.

Our biggest advantage was that of having so much of the venue infrastructure already in place. While transportation issues of moving spectators and athletes around the region were a challenge, they were not any greater than those solved by previous host cities.

But, in the end, none of that mattered. The United States Olympic Committee wanted a city with unquestionable international identity and wound up choosing New York to be the American contender.

The IOC chose London.

Then came the competition for this year’s games that will leave Rio with the task of figuring out how to overcome huge financial losses and what to do with sports facilities for which there are no apparent future uses.

Chicago was the U.S. city bidding for this year’s games. With a winning plan to stage the games in President Barack Obama’s home city and with him out front in promoting the effort, it was the first among the four finalists to be eliminated.

The USA Basketball managing director, reflecting widespread belief, declared the IOC vote to be “wired” and said, “That decision was made before the vote even took place.”

So goes the politics of the IOC.

So, why does Los Angeles have a chance for the 2024 Games? The best guess is that the IOC is ready to refill its coffers, and coming to the U.S. is the best way to accomplish that.

And then there’s NBC, which last year inked a deal with the IOC to pay $7.75 billion to air the Olympics through the 2032 Games.

The executive powers of the media giant are expecting to finally get what the Peacock network wants — the Games in the U.S.

Will our region ever have a legitimate chance in doing this? We are only getting stronger with world-class facilities and a constantly growing international presence.

Such reality could one day produce a “yes” to that question.

But it will be our grandchildren or great-grandchildren who may actually be able to witness the lighting of the Olympic flame in North Texas.

This story was originally published August 19, 2016 at 6:47 PM with the headline "28 years without the Summer Olympic Games in the U.S.."