- Date
- 02 Feb 2016
- Tags
- IOC News , Host City Election
IOC President visits Los Angeles and meets LA 2024 candidature leaders
On Monday, IOC President Thomas Bach visited Los Angeles, a Candidate City for the Olympic Games 2024. He was received by Mayor Eric Garcetti and Casey Wasserman, President of the Candidature Committee. They toured the possible venues, including the campuses of USC and UCLA, which would house the media and the athletes’ villages respectively.
President Bach said during the visit: “You have done a great job in thinking how, in line with Olympic Agenda 2020, you can link your great Olympic legacy with an even greater Olympic future. How you can build this future on the strong foundation you have. You are a strong candidate, and it is a great race of four excellent cities, trying to embrace Olympic Agenda 2020 from very different angles. We now know that wherever the Olympic Games take place in 2024, they will be great Games.”
Mayor Eric Garcetti said: “Our city has changed considerably since we last hosted the Olympics, but our love for the Games remains stronger than ever. If LA has the honour of hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games we will create a new Games for a new era. We are committed to delivering a meaningful legacy, not just for our city, but for the region, the nation and the entire Olympic Movement.
President Bach was accompanied by a group of Olympic gold medallists, including Carl Lewis, Nadia Comaneci, Bart Conner, Allyson Felix, Dawn Harper-Nelson and Janet Evans. He also attended a dinner at the Getty Museum with representatives of the sporting and culture community of Los Angeles. He was accompanied by IOC Member Larry Probst, President of USOC, IOC Members Anita DeFrantz and Angela Ruggiero and IOC Honorary Member Jim Easton, as well as USOC CEO Scott Blackmun. Earlier, President Bach had visited an NBA game of the Los Angeles Lakers, where he was greeted by Olympic gold medallists Kobe Bryant and “Magic” Johnson.
Before coming to Los Angeles, President Bach had visited Rome, Budapest and Paris, the three other candidates for the Olympic Games 2024.