The United States Olympic Committee announced Tuesday that its board of directors has unanimously approved a U.S. bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Four cities -- Boston, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and San Francisco -- are the early favorites for the official bid city, with a final decision on that front coming in 2015.

"We are excited to announce our plans to put forth a bid for the 2024 Games and look forward to taking the next step of selecting from a group of four world-class cities to present a compelling and successful bid," USOC chairman Larry Probst said in a statement. "We’re grateful to the civic and political leaders in each of the four cities for the partnership that’s been demonstrated thus far, and confident that the deliberative process we’ve put in place is going to result in a strong U.S. bid that can truly serve the athletes and the Olympic and Paralympic movements."

The decision comes following six months of discussions with city leaders, who laid out plans for hosting the games.

"All four cities have presented plans that are part of the long-term visions for their communities," USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement. "At our request, and because of the preliminary nature of our discussions, the cities have not spoken about their bids publicly in great detail. That will be an important part of the process after we make our selection in January."

Atlanta was the most recent U.S. host of the Olympics, in 1996.