Athens is being lined up to host the 2021 International Olympic Committee Session ©Getty Images

Athens is expected to host the 2021 International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session, it was announced here today.

The Greek capital, birthplace of the Modern Olympic Games, has been targeted by the IOC as the venue for what would be the 137th Session.

A feasibility study is set to be carried out before it is officially confirmed. 

The choice is expected to be confirmed by this year's IOC Session in Lausanne, due to take place between June 24 and 26. 

The most significant decision set to be taken at the 2021 IOC Session is the election of the President.

It will mark the end of Thomas Bach's eight-year term and he is expected to seek a further four-year mandate. 

Provided Athens is awarded the event, it would be the eighth time it has hosted the IOC Session since staging the second in 1896, when Pierre de Coubertin was elected President. 

But it will be the first time Athens has staged the IOC Session since 2004, when it was held on the eve of the Olympic Games.

That event was memorable for the intense lobbying which went on between cities bidding for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, most notably London and Paris, less than a year before the event was awarded to the British capital. 

Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos, right, with former IOC President Jacques Rogge at the 2018 Session in Buenos Aires, would be expected to play a key role in helping to organise an event in Athens ©Twitter
Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos, right, with former IOC President Jacques Rogge at the 2018 Session in Buenos Aires, would be expected to play a key role in helping to organise an event in Athens ©Twitter

Athens has also staged IOC Sessions in 1906, 1934, 1954, 1961 and 1978, where Sarajevo and Los Angeles were awarded the Winter and Summer Olympic Games for 1984. 

Normally, the Summer Olymipic Games would have been awarded at this IOC Session but the decision to do a dual award two years ago to Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 means that is no longer the case. 

Greece has been without an IOC member since 2015 when Lambis Nikolaou reached the age limit of 80 having been represented continuously since its formation since 1894, including having the founding President, Demetrius Vikelas. 

Today's news, however, will raise hopes that a Greek member will be recommended for election at this year's IOC Session.

The obvious candidate would be Spyros Capralos, President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) since 2009 and who would be expected to play a key role in helping to organise an IOC Session in Athens. 

Capralos has outstanding Olympic credentials. 

As well as being head of the HOC, he twice represented Greece in water polo in the Olympic Games, at Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984, and was executive director and deputy chief operating officer of Athens 2004.