The International Olympic Committee just finished the first of their two 2024 Olympic Games candidate city evaluation visits in Los Angeles. Evaluation Committee Chair, Patrick Baumann, will lead committee members to Paris this week in order to perform a similar evaluation. According to Baumann, “We will discuss not only how hosting the games would meet the needs of athletes, but also how it would serve the cities’ long-term goals for social and economic development.”
The IOC Evaluation Commission Chairman spoke glowingly of the city’s bid, according to a report from The LA Times. As Los Angeles and Paris are the only two cities with a chance to be named the host city in 2024, the evaluation committee is admittedly looking for “holes” or potential issues that either city could pose. According to a report from News18.com, the committee chair stated that Los Angeles would pose “no major risk”.
Additionally, the fact that LA has so many stadiums already built and that those structures that would need to be built are mainly already being constructed could be a huge plus.
Moreover, according to Committee Chair Baumann, “Los Angeles is already a great Olympic city but after these three days, we realize that was a great understatement. The Olympic spirit is incredibly strong in this city.” Rome, Budapest and Hamburg were all also being considered as host cities but were all removed due to public concern.
The IOC will begin their three day visit to France today and will leave on Tuesday. In July, they will post reports on both visits and on September 13th of this year, the IOC Evaluation Committee will meet to vote on and select a host city for 2024.
