Mexico is trying to revive a joint bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics between Tijuana and San Diego, although its hopes appear set to be dashed by the United States.
Carlos Padilla, President of the Mexican Olympic Committee (COM), revealed during the organization’s General Assembly today that he hoped to hold talks with United States Olympic Committee (USOC) officials early next month.
The idea of a joint bid had originally been mooted last year when the USOC began seeking expressions of interest for a 2024 Olympic bid.
But it was ruled out because at the time the Olympic Charter did not allow for joint bids for the Summer Games.
That rule has now been scrapped with the adoption of Agenda 2020 at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Monte Carlo last week.
“With these modifications we now see a joint bid between the cities of Tijuana and San Diego as a feasible project,” said Padilla at the General Assembly in Mexico City.
The two cities, which share a 15 mile border, are closely linked economically.
San Diego–Tijuana is an international metropolitan conurbation, straddling the border of the adjacent North American coastal cities of San Diego, California, United States and Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
The population of nearly five million makes it the largest bi-national conurbation shared between the United States and Mexico and the fourth largest in the world.
Padilla added that he hoped to meet with USOC chairman Larry Probst “to discuss the idea”.
But his hopes of persuading the USOC to back the initiative appear very slim.
The USOC last night formally committed to bidding for the 2024 Olympics and its Board heard presentations from Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C.
Probst claimed they would back a “single-city” bid and hoped to make an announcement in January.
This stance was confirmed today by Patrick Sandusky, chief communications and public affairs officer at the USOC.
“We are not considering a joint bid at this time,” he told insidethegames.
Earlier this year a political sports commission had been set-up to investigate the feasibility of an Olympic bid from Guadalajara but ruled that it would not be viable.
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, insidethegames.