 |
| International Olympic Committee (IOC) is poised to hand the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games to Paris and Los Angeles. |
The International Olympic Committee was poised to hand the 2024 and 2028
Summer Games to Paris and Los Angeles on Tuesday in a landmark double hosting
deal.
The IOC meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland had initially been forecast as
a key stage in the battle for 2024, with teams from the French capital and
California mega-city making fresh pitches to voters.
But the Paris-Los Angeles rivalry has been muted by an IOC plan to
ensure that both cities come out as winners, with one hosting 2024 and the
other taking its turn four years later.
The IOC has struggled to attract prospective hosts given the enormous
cost of staging the Games and Olympic boss Thomas Bach has said he does not
want to turn either Paris or Los Angeles away.
The double hosting plan was backed by IOC executives last month and is
widely expected to win approval from the body's roughly 100 members later
Tuesday.
Los Angeles, led by Mayor Eric Garcetti, did little to quell mounting
speculation it was prepared to wait.
"We are competing for 2024," Garcetti told reporters after Los
Angeles made its presentation on Tuesday.
But he added that LA was keenly awaiting approval of the double hosting
proposal, which may make the 2024 race "moot".
"LA is ready to throw these Olympics in two months if we are asked,
or two decades if it came to that because we have everything ready,"
Garcetti said.
"You can't be a kid with your toys and say if you don't give me
exactly what I want I'm getting out of here," added the LA mayor, who is a
prominent member of the US Democratic Party.
"Working hard to get the Olympics for the United States (L.A.).
Stay tuned!" President Donald Trump said in a tweet, without making
reference to a particular year.
- Paris 2024 front runner? -
The French side has insisted it was only focused on 2024, the centenary
anniversary of the last Games in Paris. The city mounted losing bids for the
1992, 2008 and 2012 Games.
LA last hosted in 1984.
French President Emmanuel Macron, a vocal 2024 proponent, was leading
the Paris push in Lausanne.
"After three failed bids we don't want to lose a fourth one,"
Macron told reporters following the Paris pitch.
"I am here to convey a message to say our people are ready to host
these Games," the French leader said in English.
He hailed the unified public support behind the bid and said that the
Olympic movement's values like tolerance and inclusivity were entrenched
France's "DNA".
Macron said 2024 was "the right moment" for Paris to host
again and that as president he was keen to rally the country around a cause
like the Games.
"It is good for a country to mobilise and back a project."
- 'Great' Olympic cities -
Bach and the IOC have already endorsed Paris and Los Angeles as model
hosts for their efforts to trim costs by using existing or temporary venues.
The Olympic movement has been stained by Games that erected grand
multi-million dollar facilities that were left to crumble and rot.
"It truly is a tale of two great Olympic cities," said a
report released last week by the 2024 Evaluation Commission.
Bach said Monday he was eyeing a "win-win-win" result from the
2024 bidding process, with Paris, Los Angeles and the IOC emerging victorious.
Assuming that happens, Bach said formal
discussions will begin with both camps, with a goal of reaching consensus on
which city goes first before the IOC's main annual meeting in Peru in
September, when the 2024 host was due to be named.
Comments
Post a Comment