Los Angeles’ bid committee for the 2024 Olympic Games has selected UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) halls of residence as the proposed site of the Olympic Village. 

The Media Village would be housed at the University of Southern California (USC), in the event of Los Angeles winning the bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.

“LA 2024 is first and foremost focused on the athletes and when we looked across the city at possible accommodations options, it became clear that we can offer the best personalized experience for athletes and other participants through existing facilities at UCLA and USC,” said Gene Sykes, CEO of LA 2024.

“With these excellent residences at USC and UCLA, LA 2024 has developed an innovative Games Plan that aligns closely with Olympic Agenda 2020’s sustainability and fiscal discipline goals.”

Building and finding suitable legacy use for athletes’ villages is a challenge for the organisers of mega sports events. 

LA 2024 had previously planned to build a new village for the Games, but with projected costs rising in excess of US$1bn the bid committee has proposed a more sustainable solution.

“We have carefully chosen facilities that are sustainable, fiscally responsible and athlete-friendly,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. 

UCLA will house all eligible athletes and team officials at its residential facilities. All of these facilities are either newly built or recently renovated and incorporate modern design, spacious layouts, social gathering places, and the latest technology and conveniences. 

The Olympic Village offers world-class training centres on site, allowing athletes the convenience of training for their events without having to travel outside the Village. The Village already includes the Drake Stadium, a 400-meter track and field venue. Other facilities will include an Olympic-size swimming and diving pools, gym, tennis, basketball, beach volleyball and other recreation and training facilities. 

“UCLA’s played a special and unforgettable part in my sporting career. It has always provided me with an environment in which to excel, and now I’m training for Rio 2016 at UCLA’s facilities,” said Dawn Harper-Nelson, Beijing 2008 Olympic gold and London 2012 Olympic silver medalist hurdler and UCLA graduate.

“I have experienced both UCLA’s residences and two Olympic Villages, and UCLA measures up perfectly. I am delighted that athletes from across the world will have the opportunity to experience the university’s best-in-class facilities if LA is selected as host city.”

Members of the media, officials and other stakeholders will be housed at USC, which offers newly renovated accommodations located around its Collegiate Gothic-style campus. USC is constructing a new 15-acre residential and retail village, which will house 2,700, and offers a grocery, drugstore, fitness centre, restaurants and retail stores.

USC’s campus and the new USC Media Village are located in the heart of the Downtown Games Cluster, within walking distance to events held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, USC Galen Center, Staples Center, Microsoft Theater and the renovated Convention Center.

“As a USC alum, I’m proud that the media, officials and other supporters of the athletes will have the opportunity to call USC’s world-class campus home during the Games,” said Janet Evans, LA 2024 Vice Chair and Director of Athlete Relations.

“USC is already home to thousands of international students and offers housing of the highest possible quality. The proximity of this housing to LA’s sporting venues will transform the media’s Games-time experience, ensuring optimum living and working conditions.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has received candidature files from Los Angeles (USA), Rome (Italy), Budapest (Hungary) and Paris (France) for hosting the Olympic Games 2024 by the Wednesday deadline.

The IOC has hailed the plans, which were submitted in digital-only format for the first time, as showing the potential for unprecedented venue sustainability. 

“Following Olympic Agenda 2020, the Candidate Cities are making use of an extremely high percentage of existing and temporary venues, possibly the most ever,” said Jacqueline Barrett, Associate Director Olympic Games/Olympic Candidatures.

Olympic Agenda 2020 is the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement and the candidature process for the 2024 Games is the first to be launched following its adoption. 

The new process encourages cities to present Olympic projects that best match their sports, economic, social and environmental long-term planning needs. It calls for the use of existing facilities where possible, and provides flexibility for the venue concept to meet local sustainability and legacy needs and ambitions.

“Los Angeles, Rome, Budapest and Paris are all submitting projects fully in line with Olympic Agenda 2020,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.

 “It is impressive to see how they have incorporated the Olympic project into the long-term development plans of their city, region and country. Coming from different starting points, for all four there is a clear focus on sustainable development, legacy and in particular how the facilities are going to be used after the Olympic Games,” said Bach. 

“We are delighted to have four extremely strong candidatures and look forward to a fascinating competition.”

The submission of the Candidature Files on “Vision, Games Concept and Strategy” marks the end of the first part of the bidding process. 

“The plans received indicate very thoughtful consideration of what the Cities and their people need for the future,” said Barrett.

“The IOC has significantly simplified the Candidature Process, symbolised by the fact that the submissions arrived for the very first time on a USB key only, instead of thousands of pages of paper documents.”

An IOC-appointed working group will now study the files and report to the IOC Executive Board (EB) in June 2016. 

The next stage of the Candidature Process will focus on Governance, Legal and Venue Funding, to be submitted by 7 October 2016, followed by a final “Games Delivery, Experience and Venue Legacy” stage due on 3 February 2017.

During Stage 3, an IOC Evaluation Commission will make working visits to each City to study their projects in detail and issue a final report. 

The host city of the 2024 Olympic Games will be elected in September 2017 at the IOC Session in Lima, Peru.

The International Olympic Committee has welcomed an “outstanding” pool of candidate cities bidding for the 2024 Games. 

Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome all submitted applications to host the 2024 Olympic Games before the IOC’s deadline of midnight on Tuesday. 

“We are welcoming five outstanding and highly qualified Candidate Cities,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.

With four major European cities and the biggest city in North America in the running, the profile of the cities is a marked change from recent Olympic Games bidding, which has been dominated by, and awarded to, cities from outside these regions. 

The most recent IOC bidding process, for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, began with six applicant cities but only Beijing and Almaty proceeded to the candidature stage. 

Since then, the bidding procedure has been changed with the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020, the programme of reform introduced by IOC president Thomas Bach.

One of the changes brought in is the removal of the “applicant phase” – so the five cities that have applied to host the Games are immediately considered to be candidates, after an “invitation phase” that has been taking place in recent months. 

“Olympic Agenda 2020 has shaped the Candidature Process more as an invitation and the cities have responded by engaging with the IOC through dialogue and cooperation,” said Bach. 

The removal of the applicant phase means that the five bidding cities will remain in the race until the host city election until 2017. 

The central focus of Agenda 2020 is reducing the financial burden of hosting the Olympic Games and making sure that hosting the event fits with the city development plans. 

“In the new invitation process the IOC learnt that all the candidates are embracing Olympic Agenda 2020 from their respective vision for the future of their city,” said Bach. 

“Sustainability and legacy are the cornerstones of each candidature.”

A number of other cities and regions had been discussing the possibility of bidding for the 2024 Games.

A possible bid from Toronto, which hosted a successful Pan American Games earlier this year, was said to be on the cards but ruled out at the last minute. 

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Toronto mayor John Tory said that an Olympic bid would form part of the city’s future plans. 

"I can't look people in the eye at this point in our city's development and tell them that an Olympic bid is the best use of our time, our energy or our investment," he said. 

"But now I can look in the eyes of my colleagues at other levels of government and say this, together we should be making the investment talked about in the context of the Olympics."

Commitments to good governance, transparency and ethics were also key features of Agenda 2020 and the IOC has published all the documents related to the candidature, including online for the first time at this stage in the process. 

Changes to the host city contract include: reference to sexual orientation in the non-discrimination clause; the freedom of media to report on the Games; and a stipulation for organisers to comply with applicable local, regional and national legislation and international agreements “with regard to planning, construction, protection of the environment, health and safety, labour and anti-corruption laws”.

The IOC has also reduced the cost of bidding, with candidate cities expected to make just three presentations instead of nine, with the travel cost for these presentations and the cost of visiting IOC evaluation commissions to be covered by the IOC. 

The IOC has also committed to contributing USD 1.7 billion in cash and services to the organising committee for the 2024 Olympic Games.

The host city of the 2024 Olympic Games will be elected by all IOC members at the 130th IOC Session in Lima, Peru in 2017.

Changes to the IOC’s bidding procedure have attracted a “very considerable field” of five candidate cities, all of which are expected to stay the course until the host city election in September 2017, IOC Vice President Sir Craig Reedie CBE told HOST CITY in an exclusive interview. 

“The change in the candidature rules, which came out of the whole reform process called Agenda 2020, seems to have attracted a very considerable field of really good cities,” he said. 

“The big addition has been the invitation phase before a National Olympic Committee decides finally to put a city into the candidature role.”

This new invitation phase ended on 15 September. “For several months before that, cities that were thinking of bidding for the Games, and the National Olympic Committees, came to meet the relevant people in the Olympic Games department and the candidate cities department of the IOC to sit down and work out exactly how the Games would fit into their city; how it would provide legacy; how it would be sustainable; how it would fit into city plans.

“That’s a complete change from the previous process, where the IOC had a very detailed list of requirements and cities bid against that list. 

“So there is a major change there and I understand that it has been welcomed by the cities,” said Sir Craig Reedie, who is delivering a keynote speech at HOST CITY 2015, which takes place in Glasgow on 9th and 10th November under the theme of “Creative Innovation Connecting Cities with Sports, Business and Culture Events.”

The five bidding cities – Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome – have all progressed to the candidature phase, rather than going through the previous applicant city phase, and will now submit their candidature files in three sections. 

“So rather than one huge bid book being required at a set date, it’s divided into three sections. There are workshops planned; there are assistances planned to the cities throughout.”

In the previous round of bids for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, three cities pulled out of bidding during the applicant phase while Olso withdrew in the candidature phase. 

The IOC’s new and more consultative adopted now means that such a fallout is unlikely to happen, Sir Craig Reedie said. 

“It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a city could come back and say we’re not taking it any further – I think that’s unlikely in the sense that a lot of work will have gone into this, a lot of discussions have gone on through the invitation phase. And since it’s going on through a stage by stage basis I think it’s highly unlikely that people will withdraw. 

“The end result of that is that we will have five cities presenting to the Session on the ultimate decision to be taken in Lima in Peru in 2017.”

Asked if it was a relief when Los Angeles stepped forward to take the place of Boston’s abandoned bid, Sir Craig Reedie said: “Yes, I think the USOC have all but admitted that their process might not have worked in the selection of Boston.

“But, with Boston’s withdrawal, they were fortunate in many ways that the Los Angeles people were so able to come to the party very quickly and in a relatively tight timeframe.

“Los Angeles has an Olympic record – if they win they will be like London, hosting the third time. The city has changed dramatically over the last few years and I am sure they will come forward with a very good bid.”

The IOC is very pleased to have five cities bidding, Reedie said. “It’s an interesting mix. Paris is looking to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Games in Paris and has clear bidding experience. 

“Rome hosted outstanding Games in 1960 and there seems to be considerable enthusiasm in Italy and in Rome behind the Rome bid, so they are impressive.

“Budapest has come quite late to the party but again a splendid city and Hungary has a terrific Olympic record. 

“It’s interesting that when the German Olympic Committee decided to choose Hamburg as opposed to Berlin, who I suppose before that decision would have been seen to be favourite, immediately there was strong support from Berlin for the Hamburg choice. So again there seems to be a great deal of unity there. 

“So it’s a really good field.”

LA 2024 Vice Chair and four-time Olympic swimming champion Janet Evans attended Host City 2015 conference in Glasgow this week, marking the start of a busy period for the LA 2024 Candidature Committee which includes attending the IOC 2024 Candidate City workshops in Lausanne (November 19-20) and the European Olympic Committees (EOC) General Assembly in Prague (November 20-21).

The Host City 2015 conference, which took place in Glasgow on November 9-10, offered Evans, who is also LA 2024 Director of Athlete Relations, the chance to learn from the experiences of a range of leaders from across the Olympic Movement.

LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman said: “We are delighted that Janet is attending the Host City conference in Glasgow with so many Olympic experts present. We are very much in our ‘looking, listening and learning’ phase and these types of events are an invaluable part of this process.

“We will also send a significant LA 2024 delegation to Lausanne for the IOC 2024 Candidate City workshops; which will provide the ideal opportunity to engage and interact with the IOC on the path ahead.

“The EOC General Assembly in Prague represents a further opportunity, after the ANOC General Assembly in Washington, D.C., to consult with the NOC family. Their athletes are at the very heart of the Olympic Movement and IOC President Thomas Bach’s visionary Olympic Agenda 2020. The NOCs have a critical role in preparing and supporting athletes, so it is vital that we consult with them whenever possible.”

The US Olympic Committee is due to speak with Boston’s bid team today to re-evaluate whether they should remain the US city of choice to bid for the 2024 Olympics Games – but comments made to Host City earlier this month by the USOC’s lead advisor indicate that the choice of city is not the critical issue.

“I think the biggest challenge that any US city faces has to do with the host city agreements and being able to provide the appropriate guarantees to the IOC. It’s no secret that that’s a challenge for any US city.” USOC advisor Doug Arnot told Host City in early July.

“Being able to put together a programme that is risk-averse, that minimises and mitigates risk to the extent that it can be acceptable to fitting in state government is always going to be a challenge for any US city, not only Boston.

“Boston has responded very well to what I would call democratic pressures. They have had to take a look at their plan and make sure that it made sense from a financial perspective, from a legacy perspective – they’ve had to examine it much more carefully than a lot of bids would at this time. 

“They’ve been under the gun, it’s definitely been a challenge but they’re responding very well to the challenge.” 

Asked whether the USOC chose the right city in Boston, Arnot said: “We had four great cities to choose from. There were some very good reasons to pick Boston and there were some very good reasons that we could have gone with the other cities. We have all put our energy behind Boston and are trying to help them to continue to advance the plans.”

National Olympic Committees interested in bidding for the 2024 Olympic Games must present a city to the IOC by 15 September. 

Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome have so far been announced as bidding cities, with Toronto said to be considering applying. The Russian city of Kazan has also recently been linked to a possible bid.

Paris officially launched its long anticipated bid for the 2024 Games on Tuesday, with a message of strong backing from the state and the public. 

The leaders of the bid also said a referendum was unlikely to be required. 

In its bid to host the Games, Paris is competing against Boston and Hamburg, which both face public referendums in order to progress their bids, as well as Rome and a likely bid from Budapest and other potential contenders including Baku and Doha.

“We are all very much motivated and enthusiastic to be able to achieve unanimity in this ambition to make Paris an Olympic and Paralympic city in 2024,” said bid committee chairman Bernard Lapasset.

“Bidding for the Games is a unique and exciting project for a country. This is an ambitious project that goes beyond sport, as its reach is global and significant impact at all levels and for the whole country.

“As we move forward with our bid, it is very pleasing to see today that we already have the full support of the city, regional and national governments as well as the CNOSF and the French sports movement – it is wonderful to also receive significant public support and real backing from our athletes.”

Lapasset added that the bid would “excite, unite and enthuse the people of Paris, our entire nation and lovers of Olympic and Paralympic sport all over the world.”

Asked by Le Monde after the launch if there would be a referendum on the bid, Lapasset said “I don’t think there will be one.”

This position was backed up by Etienne Thobois, chief executive of Paris 2024 bid committee who told media: “As of today there is no plan for a referendum at this stage.”

Lapasset and Thobois reportedly both stressed that public consultation will be crucial as the bid progresses. 

The bid committee drew attention to France’s current form in hosting major sports events, which includes the World Rowing Championships and the Basketball European Championships in 2015, EURO 2016, the World Handball Championships in 2017 and the Ryder Cup in 2018.

2024 marks the centenary of the last and only time Paris has hosted the Olympic Games, in 1924.  The city unsuccessfully bid for the Games in 1992, 2008 and 2012. 

But Thobois said “We are looking forward, we are not looking backwards… we are into Agenda 2020, not Agenda 1920.”

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said Paris was “looking forward to an exciting and bold future whilst remaining true to its rich sporting and cultural traditions.

“We aim to highlight the unity and the solidarity of a cosmopolitan city, which I am sure will be one of the key strengths to win.”

The host city of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be elected by IOC members in a secret ballot at the body’s 130th Session in the Peruvian capital of Lima in September 2017.

After the film La La Land won six Oscars, seven Golden Globes and five BAFTAs you would have thought that Los Angeles is getting bored in 2017 celebrating the success of its city and famous residents.

Don’t believe that for one Hollywood minute. That’s because the US city is still in the running for perhaps the year’s biggest prize of all – the hosting rights to the 2024 Olympic Games.

The race to host the 2024 Games is down to two candidate cities and in September the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Lima, Peru, will decide whether it’s LA or Paris that gets the nomination.

With the 130^th IOC session fast approaching, the LA and Paris bid committees have been busy putting together the final touches of their showreel in order to garner votes for the 2024 election.

One major showcase for both bids was the 2017 SportAccord Convention (SAC) in Aarhus, Denmark in April.

Vive la difference

The French capital put forward its bid of being ‘the right city, with the right vision at the right moment’. It also promised international federations and the Olympic movement that it would host the “most spectacular Games ever”.

The Paris presentation revealed that 95% of venues were already existing or temporary and the city’s ultra-compact plan would ensure that 85% of venues will be within 30 minutes of the athletes’ village.

Strong stuff from the “City of Light”, which is hoping to mark 100 years since it last hosted the Olympics in 1924.

And during LA’s 15 minutes in the spotlight at SAC, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti told delegates: “It’s important we draw a distinction in our vision, because although many believe the two bids in this race are quite similar… they are, in fact, very different.”

Privately-financed bid

With the heart of the film industry within its boundaries, it comes as no surprise that the Californians presented a strong narrative. When Host City asked LA 2024 Candidature Committee chairman Casey Wasserman if the entertainment industry could be drawn on for a potential LA 2024 Games, he replied: “We are very proud of our storytelling community, that’s what Hollywood is all about. When people want to speak to the world they come to LA. We think our ability of leverage that and bring that to the Olympic Games will be tremendous.”

While LA will bring some razzmatazz to the Olympic Games, the city’s bid has another very big USP regarding the bid’s funding.

“We are a privately-financed bid,” Angela Ruggiero, chief strategy officer for the LA 2024 Candidature Committee, former ice hockey star and IOC executive board member told Host City.

“That’s very different from a government-financed project where you are sort of at the whim of the government. We’ve made that one of our key focal points as a bid is to have the lowest-risk approach with the most sound budget.”

LA will require federal support for security matters, but the operations and management overlay is financed through the individual projects. “That’s a distinguishing factor between the two bids and we wanted to highlight that because we do things differently in regards to hosting events,” added Ruggiero.

“We don’t have sports ministers for example. The way that we promote sport is through the private sector. Budgets can’t be slashed, therefore it’s a different kind of model.”

For venues, LA has adopted a low-risk approach of utlising the city’s extensive existing sports assets. This tactic has helped grow public support in the Olympic bid to 88%.

One asset, for example, is the LA Memorial Coliseum, which is planned to host the medal ceremonies and track-and-field events in 2024. On May 3 it was announced that the University of Southern California had secured approval from the Coliseum Commission to proceed with its $270 million privately funded upgrade of the LA Memorial Coliseum.

The elephant in the room at SAC

With two very strong and well-supported bids, one major city is going to miss out when the IOC makes its big decision in September. Or will it?

The IOC Session in Lima could in fact name the host city for both 2024 and 2028 – meaning both Paris and LA win the right to host a summer games. A working group composed of the IOC’s four vice presidents is currently evaluating this possibility.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC vice-president, told a select group of journalists at SAC: “Basically what we are doing is not talking about 2024, internally we are thinking of how we can be more flexible to have a selection system that better suits our interests and the interests of the Olympic movement. The ideas that we might have for 2024 and 2028 are serious ones, but there is a process and both cities know what the process is.”

Paris’ committee has said it only wants to host in 2024 while LA chairman Wasserman was also straight with his answer. He told Host City: “We are bidding for 2024. There should be no confusion about that. I applaud the IOC for their thinking because it’s strategic and timely, but it’s also hypothetical. We’re bidding for 2024. Hypotheticals are not interesting.”

Next on the agenda for the IOC and the LA and Paris committees is the 2024 candidate briefing for IOC members and Summer Olympic IFs in July.

Once that’s complete it will be back to the drawing board for both cities to put the finishing touches to their candidature bids.

Will LA’s bid script see that big Hollywood ending? We will wait and see in September.

[Source: ITU] The International Triathlon Union is pleased to announce that ITU President and International Olympic Committee member, Marisol Casado, has been appointed to four of the IOC Commissions. During the next year, Casado will serve on the Women and Sport, Olympic Solidarity, Public Affairs and Social Development Through Sport and Evaluation for the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad Commissions, while ITU Honorary Member Dr. Sarah Springman will serve on the IOC Sustainability and Legacy Commission.
 
“I am absolutely delighted to be involved in the four Commissions at the IOC,” said Casado. “To be able to present the IOC with the voice of an International Federation is always remarkable, and I commit myself to serve with dedication, transparency and loyalty to help develop not only our sport, triathlon, but also the whole world of sports.”
 
IOC President, Thomas Bach, announced the composition of the 26 IOC Commissions, highlighting the fact that 38% of the places are now held by women. “These changes are aligned with the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020 and show that a stronger participation of women and a more diversified continental representation are our top priorities,” said IOC President Bach.

For the first time, female members are present on each of the Commissions. The IOC has also approved to increase the number of members from America, Africa and Asia, guaranteeing a more diverse continental representation.

Ms. Casado was appointed a member of the IOC in 2010, and since then she has been playing an active role on multiple commissions and activities. She joined the Women and Sport Commission in 2014, being also the only female president of a summer Olympic International Federation.
 
In 2015, she was appointed to the Public Affairs and Social Development through Sport Commission, presided by Mario Pescante, and the following year, in 2016, she was elected as a member of the Evaluation Commission for the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, to which the cities of Los Angeles and Paris are bidding.
 
The last commission to be joined by Casado is the Olympic Solidarity, presided by the Sheik Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, which is focused on giving assistance to all the National Olympic Committees, particularly those with the greatest needs, through multi-faceted programmes prioritizing athlete development, training of coaches and sports administrators, and promoting the Olympic values.
 
ITU Honorary member and former Vice President, Dr. Sarah Springman, has also been appointed to serve on the Sustainability and Legacy Commission, presided by Prince Albert II of Monaco.
 
The new make-up of the IOC Commissions, which will provide assistance to the IOC and the Olympic Games Organising Committees, is also marked by the inclusion of young men and women who represent a new generation and will be the sports leaders of tomorrow.
 
“I am really excited that some young faces are joining us working on the Commissions. Mentoring the new generations is always a great investment for all, as we’ve been doing during the last few years, also at ITU,” said Casado.

Following Budapest’s decision to withdraw from the bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesman Mark Adams said changes would be made to the candidature procedure.

Budapest’s withdrawal leaves only Paris and Los Angeles in the running to host the 2024 Games and the Hungarian city is the third to pull out of the process after Hamburg in 2015 and Rome in September 2016.

The decision came after more than 260,000 people had signed a petition against the Budapest Olympic bid and were seeking a referendum on the matter.

In a statement, Adams said: “It is disappointing that this decision had to be taken – the candidature committee had presented an excellent project, which has built on the reforms contained in Olympic Agenda 2020. It also demonstrated that smaller cities and smaller countries can stage the Olympic Games in a feasible and sustainable way.

“For all these reasons, the IOC can appreciate the success of Olympic Agenda 2020 as far as the organisation of sustainable Olympic Games that fit into the long-term development plan of a city, region and country is concerned. This success is further demonstrated by the statements of Budapest, Los Angeles and Paris, that, without the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, there would not have been any candidates.”

Adams added: “With regard to the candidature procedure as such, the political situation in our fragile world requires us to make adjustments in this respect as the current procedure produces too many losers – as the IOC president already said in December 2016.

“These adjustments will be discussed with all the stakeholders of the Olympic Movement. In the meantime, the candidature procedure for the Olympic Games 2024 will continue with the two excellent candidatures of Los Angeles and Paris.”

In September in Lima, Peru, the IOC will elect the winner when it votes between Paris and LA.