This past week, the International Olympic Committee evaluation commission visited Los Angeles as it closes in on announcing a host for the 2024 Olympics. According to reports from USA TODAY Sports and InsideTheGames, the visit saw the IOC heap praise on LA’s readiness to host an Olympic Games.
Over the course of the three-day visit, LA showed off its plan to keep costs low by centering athletic events around four major clusters using mostly existing facilities and housing the athletes and media in already-existing villages on the campus of UCLA and USC, respectively.
The swimming facility would be a temporary pool adjacent to the USC pool built for the 1984 Olympics.
Photo Courtesy: Los Angeles 2024 (la24.org)
“These were very impressive,” IOC commission chairman Patrick Baumann said, according to InsideTheGames. “They have everything for what will be needed for the Games. Whether it is for the media, at USC, or the athletes, at UCLA. We stayed a long time there because they will be key pieces of a Games here in LA. I’m sure athletes will have great training, great accommodation and great food at UCLA.”
Paris is the only other city in the bidding to host the 2024 Games, and it would have to build new housing facilities. That’s one issue that the LA 2024 bid is pushing hard in its quest to gain the upper hand in the bidding.
“It’s not hard to imagine the majesty of 17,000 athletes in that village in the summer of 2024. We think that’s certainly a compelling proposition,” LA 2024 chairman Casey Wasserman told USA TODAY Sports.
“We know what a challenge it is to construct, deliver and operate a village in any big urban setting, so we do believe that the asset that UCLA has as the village is remarkable. They’re world-class facilities. And the truth is, you couldn’t replicate those from scratch.”
At the end of the visit, Baumann explained how he was extremely impressed by the LA bid, admitting that he was “ecstatic” about the venues and calling his previous assessment of LA as “a great Olympic city” “a massive understatement,” according to tweets from USA TODAY’s Rachel Axon.
According to another of Axon’s tweets, he did make one verbal slip-up.
Still, Baumann emphasized that he and his commission still want to see what Paris has to offer, so it’s by no means certain that LA will secure the hosting rights.
“I think that we are at a fortunate time for the history of bids for Olympics Games,” Baumann said. “We have two excellent cities. In LA there is no major risk that we can highlight in any way right now. We now go to Paris and then will come back and assess our feelings on what we have seen.
“There are differences [between the two]. These are two different cities with different visions and touches and that is an interesting one. But from what we have seen here is that they would be a transformative vision for the Games moving forward.”
Wasserman and the LA 2024 organizing committee, meanwhile, send off the IOC confident about their chances.
“We have the strongest foundations of any bid in history, so the bid we submitted is the Games we will deliver,” LA 2024 chairman Casey Wasserman said. “That’s really what we mean when we say low risk.”
The IOC is scheduled to meet Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru, to determine a host for the 2024 Games.
As for some new speculation that the IOC could award both the 2024 and 2028 Games this September, instead of just the 2024 Games, the LA organizing committee admits that such a decision could be a “smart move” for the IOC, but members emphasize that it should be LA in 2024 and Paris in 2028, if the IOC chooses that path.
Read more from USA TODAY Sports by clicking here and here. More information from InsideTheGames is available here and here.
Oh man, I hope LA gets the bid.