SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Executive Committee today selected the cities of Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington to continue their quests to be named the U.S. Bid City for the 2012 Olympic Games.  The metropolis that will ultimately represent the USA in an international bid to host the Games of the XXXth Olympiad will not be chosen by the USOC until late in 2002, and will have to wait until 2005 for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to name the host city for 2012.    An unprecedented eight cities had sought the U.S. designation, however following a report by Olympian Charles Moore, chair of the USOC's Bid Evaluation Task Force, the Executive Committee voted to reduce the candidate list to four, and eliminated Cincinnati, Dallas, Los Angeles and Tampa from consideration for 2012.    "These are eight outstanding cities," stressed Moore, a gold medalist at the 1952 Olympic Games.  "Each has developed strong public/private coalitions and innovative academic/cultural/athletic partnerships resulting in potential long-term partnering opportunities for the USOC with each city.  They are committed to the Olympic Movement, America's athletes and the Olympic ideal.  Each is a winner to the USOC."    "The USOC owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the members of the Evaluation Task Force for the time and effort they put forth in studying the proposals submitted, visiting each of the cities, and assessing the strengths of each of the bidders," said USOC President Sandra Baldwin. "Each of the task force members is committed to ensuring that our selection process is substantive and complete, and in keeping with the reformed IOC guidelines.  Their hard work and diligence will insure that the final candidate city put forward to represent the United States to host the 2012 Olympic Games will be a strong candidate internationally."    Moore and his fellow task force members - former Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini, Roland Betts, Evie Dennis, Stacey Johnson, Chris Cole, Reyne Quackenbush, Ann Swisshelm, Tony Basile, Greg Harney, Keith Ferguson and Frank Aires - prepared their report after reviewing each of the bid proposals and the USOC staff's technical assessments of 19 specific themes, plus visiting each of the candidate cities.    The evaluation process used by the USOC mirrored the IOC's candidature procedure, which rates each city against specific criteria rather than versus each other.  Thirteen criteria were scored, eight of which accounted for 74 percent of the total weighting.  These included general infrastructure, sports infrastructure, the Olympic Village, transportation strategies, international strategies, finance and guarantees, accommodations, and partnership abilities.    "Three of the four selected cities scored in the top three in all but two of these eight categories," said Moore, who described the process as fair, consistent and sustainable.  "No other city scored in the top three more than once."    The task force chairman also reported that only one of the four finalists has submitted the required Joinder Understanding; however, the USOC expects the other three before the November 30, 2001 deadline.  If not, these cities will be eliminated from consideration.