LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles is the official U.S. nominee for the 2024 Olympic games — a dramatic turnaround for a city that just two months ago was considered out of the running.

But with a late surge of life brought on by Boston’s dropout from the process, the city found itself on Tuesday as the U.S. candidate, and its leaders were left feeling inspired and destined.

“This is a quest that Los Angeles was made for,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “This city is the world’s greatest stage.”

Garcetti said Los Angeles, home to the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, would stage games that are both spectacular and profitable.

He was given unanimous approval from his City Council to strike agreements for a 2024 bid, a move that was immediately followed by the U.S. Olympic Committee naming Los Angeles as its candidate.

“I want to thank Los Angeles for standing up, once again, as America’s bid city,” said USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun, who stood under a summer sun at Santa Monica Beach, where the city’s plan calls for staging beach volleyball on the site where the sport was founded.

The city’s selection as the U.S. nominee marks the start of a two-year competition. The International Olympic Committee will pick the host city in September 2017.