Boston, which stages a celebrated marathon and has a rich history of professional championships in basketball, football, baseball and hockey, will now swing for the fences in international sport as it seeks to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

On Thursday, Boston was chosen as the American bid city over Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington by the board of directors of the United States Olympic Committee.

In September 2017, the International Olympic Committee will choose the host of the 2024 Games. The United States has not held the Summer Olympics since the Atlanta Games in 1996, but American Olympic officials “feel we have an incredibly strong partner in Boston that will work with us to present a compelling bid,” Larry Probst, chairman of the U.S.O.C., said in a statement.

Boston, which has never hosted the Olympics, has broad corporate support for its bid, and it is a sports-mad region whose spirit was evident in the recovery from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. But public opinion about staging the Games is divided, and opposition has been organized and vocal.