Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will lead their respective city’s delegations when bids to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games give introductory presentations to Olympic stakeholders at the SportAccord Convention Tuesday.
Based on the emerging rhetoric ahead of the meeting, both cities will be pushing to emphasize their fit for the 2024 Games as opposed to the 2028 edition. The IOC is currently contemplating awarding both Games to Paris and LA later this year.
Olympic Federations attending the convention in Aarhus, Denmark starting Monday, including several IOC members, will get their first glimpse of plans from Los Angeles and Paris to host the Games, during 10 minute closed-door presentations. There will be no question and answer period, however there will be other opportunities for delegates to meet with the gathered sport leaders at the convention.
A Paris statement says the bid plans to “share with international federations its vision and tailor-made offer for each sport in 2024.”
A statement from LA 2024 said the American bid “will present an introduction to its low-risk, high-tech Games Plan to the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations [ASOIF] General Assembly, and reiterate the bid’s pledge to grow every Olympic and Paralympic sport in the $250 billion US sports market.”
It continued “the bid leaders will use their time at the SportAccord Convention to meet with sports leaders from around the world, sharing their ideas and gathering feedback from experts in summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic sports.”
Along with Mayor Hidalgo, Paris has planned to send a 12-member delegation including bid co-Chair Tony Estanguet, French IOC member Guy Drut, bid CEO Etienne Thobois and French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) president Denis Masseglia.
“When LA is ready to help connect the Olympic and Paralympic Movements to the future right now, why wait until ’28?’” – LA Mayor Eric Garcetti
Paris 2024 Sports Director Jean Phillippe Gatien will work in close contact with the international federations at the event and International relations director Sophie Lorant will also be in attendance at the event.
With LA Mayor Garcetti, leading the LA delgation will be LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman, LA 2024 CEO Gene Sykes, LA 2024 Vice Chair Janet Evans and the three American IOC members – Anita DeFrantz, Angela Ruggiero and Larry Probst.
Estanguet said “this project was built with the input of the international federations and places athletes at the core of our plans.”
Alluding to the possible 2024 and 2028 joint award Estanguet continued “we look forward to sharing our tailor-made project with each federation. And we will also be there to discuss with the international sporting community why Paris 2024 is the right city, with the right vision at the right moment.”
Mayor Garcetti also emphasized the 2024 opportunity.
He said “the City of Angels would be an ideal partner for the Olympic and Paralympic Movements leading up to a 2024 Games in Los Angeles.”
“We Angelenos believe in partnership, not brinkmanship, and we are delighted to be here among our friends and colleagues from the Olympic Family, sharing our ideas and listening to their needs. LA 2024’s message here is: ‘When LA is ready to help connect the Olympic and Paralympic Movements to the future right now, why wait until ’28?’”
Wasserman said “the world is changing, and so are the needs of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements. The 2024 host city needs to guarantee the Olympic Movement new ideas, stability and the lowest possible risk at this critical moment. LA 2024 does that.”
The two bids will make subsequent presentations to the full IOC membership July 11 and 12 in Lausanne ahead of the final election scheduled for September 13 in Lima, Peru.
