One Year to IOC Vote on 2024 Host City

(ATR) The four cities vying for the 2024 Olympics say they have 12 challenging months ahead.

The IOC membership will choose between Budapest, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome at the Session in Lima, Peru on Sept. 13 next year.

It promises to be a hectic year of campaigning for the bids. Bid dossiers for stage two and three of the process are due with the IOC in October and February. The first formal bid presentations to an Olympic audience take place at the ANOC general assembly in Doha, Nov. 13-16. The IOC will allow international promotion from next February.

Major milestones in 2017 include inspection visits in the spring by the IOC’s 2024 evaluation commission headed by Frank Fredericks. A candidate cities briefing for the full IOC membership is scheduled next summer before the showdown in Lima.

Rome Confident in Mayor Talks

Bid director general Diana Bianchedi told Around the Rings the Italian bid team is ready for a tough campaign.

"As an athlete I’m used to challenges. I face them working hard, training as much as possible but most importantly achieving my goals knowing that I did all that I could. And this is exactly what we’re doing towards September 2017," she said.

"We are now highly concentrated on step two of the dossier to be handed to the IOC on Oct. 7."

Bianchedi expressed confidence in the bid overcoming its most serious challenge to date – winning the support of Rome mayor Virginia Raggi, an Olympic skeptic. Bid leaders are due to meet with Raggi after the Paralympics. It’s currently touch and go if the mayor, who has repeatedly voiced concerns about the Olympic bid, can be persuaded to back the campaign. If she doesn’t, the bid is dead.

"The more I examine our dossier, the more I believe that the capital’s Olympic project can prove its importance to our mayor," Bianchedi said.

"The main asset of our dossier is that it addresses the real needs of the city and its suburbs. Rome 2024 has been strongly backed by the Italian president of the republic, government and region; the mayor should take all the time needed to assess the project."

Budapest 2024 to Meet IFs

With one year to go, Budapest bid leader Balázs Fürjes said "there is a still a huge amount of work and a lot to look forward to" in the build-up to the IOC vote.

"For example, we host the ‘big three’ in July and August next year (the European Youth Olympic Festival, World Judo Championships and Aquatics World Championships)," he said. "People ask me what our biggest challenge is, and the answer is simple: explaining the magic of Budapest to someone who has never been there."

Fürjes said that since Budapest began its Olympic journey in 2007 with the approval of the city’s general assembly "we have built a strong proposal that gets stronger with every refinement.

"Our natural strength resides in a compact plan that fits Agenda 2020 closely, and our single Olympic park concept is quite unique," he said, adding that the bid was preparing for international federation visits "so that we can really start to hone in on the details and create the best possible environments for athletes".

Budapest 2024 and city authorities announced Tuesday the launch on Oct. 1 of the first Budapest Urban Games. Four popular youth sports – running, cycling, table tennis, four-a-side football – will be staged against the backdrop of the city’s famous UNESCO heritage sites. Next year Budapest hopes to expand the event to include skateboarding.

Paris Builds Public Support

The French bid on Tuesday launched a ‘Tour of France’ – an initiative that will see bid leaders touring cities outside of the Paris region to promote the bid vision and build public support.

The first stop today was in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, proposed venue for Olympic sailing and football at the Stade Velodrome at the 2024 Games. The tour will continue in Nantes and visit six other cities across France before February. Bid officials will meet representatives from all areas of society including schoolchildren, economic and political leaders to grow engagement.

Paris 2024 co-chairman Tony Estanguet today led the delegation hosted by the Mayor of Marseille which included French Olympians and Paralympians.

"We are delighted to mark one year to go to Lima and begin our Tour of France here in Marseille – a fantastic sports city which will play a big role in a Paris 2024 Games," Estanguet said.

"We are proposing a bid for all of France and nationwide support is very important to us – we are looking forward to harnessing this opportunity to visit many regions in France to promote the unique vision of the bid, engage with the public and build on the strong support. This is the beginning of an exciting new phase for the bid."

Los Angeles Talks Low Risk Games

LA 2024 shared a new bid video on Tuesday and an Op-Ed by chairman Casey Wasserman to celebrate the year-to-go mark.

Wasserman’s comment piece celebrates the Rio Olympics and Paralympics and discusses how the city seeks to learn from the Games.

"Over the past year, we have really enjoyed meeting with many Angelenos, U.S. and international athletes and global sports leaders to understand what it takes to create a high-tech, low-risk and sustainable new Games for a new era," he said.

"With one year to go, we are even more convinced that LA 2024 is the right bid, in the right place, at the right time to bring the Games back to the US for the first time in 28 years."

Wasserman added: "Now, we're excited to spend the year ahead celebrating our community's Olympic spirit, promoting the New LA around the world, listening and learning from the Olympic family and finalizing our plans to put California's innovation and creativity at the service of the Olympic Movement."

Reported by Mark Bisson

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