IOC President Completes Visit to LA 2024

(ATR) Thomas Bach praises the "strong team with a strong candidature" in Los Angeles as the IOC President wraps up his visits to the four 2024 candidate cities.

"It was impressive the stage of preparations and the professional team behind (it) and the enthusiasm of the people," said Bach, who previously visited Budapest, Paris and Rome.

He said the city, which is seeking its third Summer Games, is addressing the reforms in Olympic Agenda 2020 "in a way which shows how much you can build on an Olympic legacy plan to build an Olympic future and an Olympic future which would be going beyond 2024." Bach said LA 2024 is also doing a good job linking sport and education to benefit youth.

The IOC delegation concluded its Southern California jaunt in fewer than 48 hours before departing Tuesday morning for meetings with technology executives in Silicon Valley.

But the limited time was well-spent, with Bach enjoying his interactions with Olympic gold medalists such as Kobe Bryant, who gave him a No. 24 Los Angeles Lakers jersey on Sunday night before a game. On Monday, Carl Lewis, Bart Conner, Nadia Comaneci and Allyson Felix were among the athletes accompanying Bach during presentations and tours at the two universities recently tapped to house the Olympic Village (UCLA) and media village (University of Southern California).

Passion Evident

"This made the day very special, because there you could feel the passion of these athletes and also the passion of the two universities," Bach told about 35 media gathered on a soccer field at UCLA, where he demonstrated some of his skills, including scoring on Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, who was in goal.

"I’m not only very pleased about the preparations here in Los Angeles," Bach said, "but even more pleased because of the fact that we have fascinating competition ahead of us with four cities that can all organize excellent Games in 2024.

"So it will be up to the different candidates now to show their uniqueness and their strength. We from the IOC can be pretty relaxed watching this great Olympic competition, which is as competitive as an Olympic final in any sport - but with one big difference. After this Olympic competition, there is only one medal, there is no silver, no bronze; it’s only the gold medal."

Los Angeles has earned gold twice before – in 1932 and 1984 – but sought to show the IOC delegation that it could differentiate itself not only from its competitors, but from lingering memories from 1984, which Bach attended.

A New Los Angeles Experience

Scott Blackmun, CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee said that "LA has really spoken for itself" with a clear, blue sky, cool temperature and easy traffic. "And these facilities are beyond spectacular," he added after the delegation toured many of the athletic fields and buildings that will be available to athletes during the Games.

"We’re very, very happy they got the chance to see LA at its best and looking forward to continuing the dialogue with them as we move on."

After lunch in a UCLA dining hall, Bach had dinner at the Getty Center.

Blackmun said that different venues compared to 1984 LA and ambitious plans to improve transportation infrastructure prove that "it really is a different city with a different vision."

Garcetti, who wore a Team USA warm up jacket while Bach was in a suit, said Los Angeles was able to show the political commitment in the city and the widespread support among its people.

"We hope to show off California values and say we are here to help no matter what the outcome is of the 2024 bidding process," Garcetti said. "That said, I think these athletes reflect the competitive spirit of Los Angeles, perhaps a city where more athletes come from and train than any in the world. We’re so proud of that legacy."

Media Capital

At USC, President C.L. Max Nikias told Around the Rings that he stressed to Bach that Los Angeles is the media capital of the world. "The University of Southern California has the No. 1 cinema school and the No. 1 school of journalism and one of the top engineering schools," he said. "They work together in this whole area of media, so the laboratory infrastructure that we have here will be very, very useful for the media village."

He also helped present plans for renovation of the iconic Los Angeles Coliseum while bid chair Casey Wasserman gave an overall look at the venues.

Bach noted that Los Angeles 2024 found an efficient solution to what has been a thorn in the side of many earlier bid cities: the location and cost of the Olympic Village.

"I told the mayor and the president of the city council that this is exactly what we want with Olympic Agenda (2020), we want to have a competition of ideas and we do not want to impose anything on a city," he said. "We do not want to give lessons to a city, how to develop a city, we want to listen to them and give them the opportunity to devise a vision for the future of their city and to tell us how the Olympic Games are fitting into this vision. This approach we saw in all four cities. And this is very encouraging to us."

Athletes Give Support

Conner and Comaneci, who make up a gymnastics power couple, are on their third bid campaign. They supported New York in 2012 and Chicago in 2016, but Los Angeles holds a special place in their hearts.

In 1984, Conner was a gold medalist on the U.S. men’s gymnastics team while Comaneci was part of the Romanian delegation. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country that did not join the Soviet-led boycott.

"I teared up when we went into the Pauley Pavilion (on the tour)," Conner said. "These were life changing experiences."

He said the 1984 Olympic Games were "groundbreaking" in being the first privately sponsored Games. "L.A. has been renowned for innovation, so I think it’s a good time to consider that. I think the whole thing is thrilling."

Once Boston dropped out as the U.S. candidate city, Conner was impressed by how quickly momentum built in Los Angeles.

"Obviously there’s such great legacy and such great history here," Conner said. "That’s really appealing. But the Games need to continue to progress and so I really like the concept that they’re focused on helping reinvent the Games for the benefit of the growth of the movement."

Reported by Karen Rosenin Los Angeles

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