Vancouver and Salzburg became firm favourites in the battle to host the 2010 Winter Games when the IOC slashed the number of bid cities from eight to four today.
Also in the chase are the Swiss city of Bern and Pyeongchang of South Korea but both were warned by the IOC that they trailed far behind Vancouver and Salzburg.
The IOC's executive committee rejected bids from Andorra, Harbin in China, Jaca in Spain and Sarajevo.
"The four applicant cities have been found to be mostly below or completely below the benchmark," said a special report on the bidding cities.
It said only Salzburg and Vancover were above the benchmark set by the IOC working group to evaluate the bid cities.
Bern and Pyeongchang were warned they would have to make major changes if they are to have a serious chance when the vote is taken by the full IOC membership at the Congress in Prague in July, 2003.