The Red Carpet was rolled out, when IOC President Thomas Bach visited Los Angeles, a Candidate City for the 2024 Olympic Games. He was received by Mayor Eric Garcetti and Casey Wasserman, President of the Candidature Committee, and half a dozen American Olympic champions accompanied him touring possible venues, including the campuses of the USC and UCLA universities, which would house the media and the athletes’ villages respectively.
“You have done a great job in thinking how, in line with Olympic Agenda 2020, you can link your great Olympic legacy with an even greater Olympic future. How you can build this future on the strong foundation you have,” Bach told his hosts. “You are a strong candidate, and it is a great race of four excellent cities, trying to embrace Olympic Agenda 2020 from very different angles. We now know that wherever the Olympic Games take place in 2024, they will be great Games.” – Mayor Eric Garcetti said: “Our city has changed considerably since we last hosted the Olympics, but our love for the Games remains stronger than ever. If LA has the honour of hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games we will create a new Games for a new era. We are committed to delivering a meaningful legacy, not just for our city, but for the region, the nation and the entire Olympic Movement.”
Touring possible venues and university campuses, President Bach was accompanied by a group of Olympic gold medallists, including Carl Lewis, Nadia Comaneci, Bart Conner, Allyson Felix, Dawn Harper-Nelson and Janet Evans. He also attended a dinner at the Getty Museum with representatives of the sporting and culture community of Los Angeles, including Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger, labor leader María Elena Durazo and newly named LA84 Foundation President Renata Simril. . He was accompanied by IOC Member Larry Probst, President of USOC, IOC Members Anita DeFrantz and Angela Ruggiero and IOC Honorary Member Jim Easton, as well as USOC CEO Scott Blackmun. Sunday evening Bach and the IOC staff had attended a Lakers NBA Basketball Game at the Staples Center, accompanied by Olympic champion and LA 2024 Vice-Chair Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson.
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.