The IOC has praised the four cities bidding for the 2024 Olympics for relying on existing and temporary facilities to cut costs and avoid white elephants.
Los Angeles, Paris, Rome and Budapest delivered their first detailed bid files to the International Olympic Committee by Wednesday's deadline.
IOC President Thomas Bach said the projects were "fully in line" with his "Olympic Agenda 2020" program, which seeks to reduce the costs of bidding for and hosting the games.
"For all four, there is a clear focus on sustainable development, legacy and in particular how the facilities are going to be used after the Olympic Games," Bach said in a statement.
Jacqueline Barrett, the IOC associate director dealing with bid cities, said the four candidates "are making use of an extremely high percentage of existing and temporary venues, possibly the most ever."
"The plans received indicate very thoughtful consideration of what the cities and their people need for the future," she said.
The IOC will select the host city in September 2017. Wednesday's submission of the first bid details marked one of the milestones of the two-year campaign.
Paris and Los Angeles are both bidding to host the games for a third time. Paris hosted in 1900 and 1924, while Los Angeles held the games in 1932 and 1984. Rome staged the 1960 Olympics, while Budapest is seeking to bring the games to Hungary for the first time.
The IOC is determined to bring down costs in the wake of criticism over the reported overall $US51 billion ($A71.8 billion) price tag associated with the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Much of the spending went toward long-term development of the Black Sea resort.
Under a new bid process, the cities must deliver files on different themes on three different occasions over the course of the campaign. Wednesday's submissions covered "vision, games concept and strategy."
The next files, covering governance, legal and venue funding, are due by October 7. 2016. The third submission, covering games delivery, experience and venue legacy, is due in February 2017.