Here we go again.

The announcement that Boston 2024, beset by unfavourable poll ratings, is to seek a referendum on its plans to bring the Summer Olympics and Paralympics to the city - and will abandon its bid if a majority of voters do not back it - may have prompted a nagging sense of déjà vu in Lausanne this week.

It raises the question: Could we experience a repeat of the incredible shrinking 2022 Olympic race?

If the withdrawals and ultimately bad blood which characterised the early stages of that contest for the Winter Games now spread to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s flagship event - their Summer counterpart - then the Movement really is in trouble.

The Winter Games, after all, are no big deal in many countries - though they are in most of the most powerful ones.

But the Summer Olympics is at the very top of the A-list of international sports events.

If the Summer Games start being affected by similar issues to those that plagued the still unfinished 2022 Winter Olympic race, then it suggests that the much-trumpeted Agenda 2020 reform programme, adopted unanimously by the IOC in Monte Carlo in December, has done little as yet to temper public scepticism regarding the cost-benefit equation of acting as Games host and perhaps the perceived extravagance of the event's gatekeepers.

A "No" vote in a local referendum ended Munich's hopes of bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics ©AFP/Getty Images

Happily I don't think we have yet reached such a point - although Boston's travails do suggest that this contest is likely to be far more volatile, and its outcome far more uncertain, than many suspected.

They certainly give the lie to those who believed the United States only had to show up to win its first summer showpiece since Atlanta 1996.

In this respect, a "No" vote by Bostonians would be the bidding equivalent of Usain Bolt's false start at the 2011 athletics world championships in Daegu.

Even with this new question-mark hanging over Boston's ability to make it to the finishing-line in Lima in two years' time, however, the field that lines up in September should be acceptably strong.

Rome and Hamburg are already limbering up - although a referendum is also expected in the German city.

The French capital Paris, arguably the new favourite even though it has yet to enter, is almost universally expected to follow suit.

Another bid from the Gulf is anticipated, with Doha again the most frequently-mentioned possibility.

Baku and Budapest, which has been quietly building up an impressive portfolio of sports events, would each make intriguing dark horses.

The US candidate's early difficulties might even prompt one or two others to have second thoughts about throwing their hat in the ring.

A campaign against Boston's bid for the 2024 Olympics been gathering pace since the United States Olympic Committee chose it as its candidate ©Twitter

Having said this, the likely date of the Boston referendum - November 2016, although local reporting suggests this is not yet clear-cut - may put a significant dampener on proceedings.

It would be almost as if the real race would not start until after that date, preceded by more than a year of shadow boxing.

Boston is a proper sports town, and I for one welcomed the United States Olympic Committee (USOC)'s decision to choose it over three other candidates in January.

But I was also surprised at the USOC's boldness, since I felt it was taking a gamble on bid supporters' ability to shape public opinion in the Massachusetts region.

Of course, even for candidates who are unencumbered by a formal referendum, the level of public support for their bid will be an important factor colouring the IOC's eventual verdict.

This is likely to be particularly true of the 2024 contest, the first to be conducted more or less entirely in a post-Agenda 2020 world.

The extent of interest among European heavyweights - who are presumably quietly content about Boston's predicament, even if they are far too polite to say so - means that the IOC does not yet have a serious problem.

The string of sponsorship deals being reeled off by Tokyo, demonstrating very tangible corporate desire to be linked with the 2020 Summer Games, will be doing no harm either.

But I would be surprised if there were not a degree of tension in the lakeside air of the Olympic capital this week: in what remain pretty tough times for ordinary people, many plainly are still unconvinced that this incomparable global jamboree of sport, while lots of fun to watch, is worth the hassle and expense of hosting.

IOC President Thomas Bach and colleagues could certainly do with a race for the 2024 Olympics that is more 2012, without the grandiloquence, than 2022.

It is still not guaranteed that this will materialise.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here