USA-OLYMPICS/LOS ANGELES UPDATE U.S. Olympic Committee names Los Angeles the official bid candidate for 2024 Summer Games

Record ID: 140554

  • Title: USA-OLYMPICS/LOS ANGELES UPDATE U.S. Olympic Committee names Los Angeles the official bid candidate for 2024 Summer Games
  • Date: 2nd September 2015
  • Summary: SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 1, 2015) (REUTERS) NEWS CONFERENCE ON SANTA MONICA BEACH OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST, GREG LOUGANIS, IN AUDIENCE AUDIENCE AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE CEO, SCOTT BLACKMUN, SAYING: "On behalf of our Chairman Larry Probst and the Board of Directors of the United States Olympic Committee it's my distinct honor today to formally name the city of Los Angeles as the US bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games." (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, ERIC GARCETTI, SAYING: "We will roll out the red carpet, put on a show that only LA can do for the greatest athletes on the face of the Earth, the Olympians and ParaOlympians who in 2024 will take center stage in the greatest of all theaters of sport." MORE OF AUDIENCE AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST, JANET EVANS, SAYING: "And I like competition but we have some good competition in some cities, we have Rome, we have Paris, we have Budapest, we have Hamburg, if we are going to win these Games and I like to win, we need to have every American behind us in this bid so I am asking my Olympic and Paralympic friends to lead the effort to make the LA 24 bid, not just an LA bid but a national campaign and national celebration." MORE OF AUDIENCE AT NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 17th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3LSVRZW2QB0UHHWSU0FOQX3OQ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Los Angeles was officially selected on Tuesday (September 1) as the American candidate city that will bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics after Boston pulled out of the race in July, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) said.
    Los Angeles, which has hosted the Summer Games twice before, in 1932 and 1984, will be among the front-runners and joins a race that includes heavy favorite Paris, Rome, Budapest and Hamburg.
    "It's my distinct honor today to formally name the city of Los Angeles as the US bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games," USOC Chief Executive Officer Scott Blackmun told a news conference held just off the beach front in Santa Monica.
    The final obstacle facing the city's candidacy was cleared earlier on Tuesday when the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to pursue a bid for the 2024 Games, giving Los Angeles the chance to become the only city besides London to host the Olympics three times.
    The resolution adopted on a 15-0 vote by the council allows the city to negotiate financial terms of a hosting deal and bow out if it cannot reach agreement with Olympic officials.
    The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will elect a winning bid in September 2017.
    Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said: "We will roll out the red carpet, put on a show that only LA can do for the greatest athletes on the face of the Earth, the Olympians and ParaOlympians who in 2024 will take center stage in the greatest of all theaters of sport."
    The USOC had been under pressure to find another potential host with the IOC having set a Sept. 15 deadline for interested cities to submit a letter of intent.
    Los Angeles represents a possibly thrifty choice, in large part because officials say most prospective event venues for the games already exist, including Memorial Coliseum, which will be 101 years old in 2024.
    The group LA24, formed to pursue an Olympic bid, has put the total estimated costs of hosting the Summer Games at $5.8 billion and has committed to generating $4.1 billion of the total.
    The rest would be left for private sources to raise, including an estimated $925 million to build a new Olympic Village to house the athletes.
    "And I like competition but we have some good competition in some cities, we have Rome, we have Paris, we have Budapest, we have Hamburg, if we are going to win these Games and I like to win, we need to have every American behind us in this bid so I am asking my Olympic and Paralympic friends to lead the effort to make the LA 24 bid, not just an LA bid but a national campaign and national celebration," former competition swimmer and four-time Olympic gold medalist, Janet Evans said at the news conference.
    Boston's removal from the 2024 race proved an embarrassment for both the USOC and IOC, which has seen a troubling drop in cities interested in hosting a Games.
    After four different candidates from Europe bidding for the 2022 Winter Games opted out, mostly because of concerns over costs, the IOC was left with a choice between unlikely bids from Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, before finally settling on the Chinese capital.
    Rio de Janeiro will host the Summer Games next year with Tokyo holding the event for a second time in 2020.
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