Reporting from Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia – Following Boston dropping its bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, twenty members of Congress from the region, along with Rep. Tony Cardenas, sent a bipartisan letter Wednesday to Larry Probst, chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC).
They wrote, “because many of the competition venues, transportation options and lodging availability are already present, Los Angeles is ready now”.
They urged the USOC to “give full and fair consideration” to choosing Los Angeles as a bidder for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Los Angeles is currently hosting the Special Olympic World Games, an event organized for 6,500 athletes and 26 sports.
On Friday at the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) 128th Session in Kuala Lumpur IOC President Thomas Bach said that he has received firm commitments to bid from five national Olympic Committees – ” France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, USA,” he said.
Despite Boston’s demise, the USOC is under pressure to choose a replacement city to avoid any conflict with the IOC – yet they aren’t obligated to make any nomination on the September 15 deadline date. But if the USOC does move forward, Los Angeles seems to be the most viable choice.
In the letter they said, “quite simply, Los Angeles is the American Olympic city. While other cities have hosted the Games in the United States, no other site can boast both the emblematic architecture and the site of Exposition Park and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the unbelievable memories etched in the history of the Games, from the exploits of Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1932 to the 10.0 of Mary Lou Retton in 1984”.
Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would be willing to talk to the USOC about becoming the U.S. bidder to host the Games. Los Angeles was one of four finalists when Boston was chosen earlier this year. San Francisco and Washington D.C. were the other two.
In an unscientific poll on GamesBids.com, currently 56 percent support a Los Angeles bid while 35 percent oppose.
