Although it lost two Olympic bids, reports say Toronto may bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
Bob Richardson, the organizers behind Toronto’s 2015 Pan-Am Games bid, told The Globe and Mail that he’s assembling a campaign to bring the 2024 Olympic Games to Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe.
Richardson said, “there’s a group of us looking at it. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries before you get that brass ring”.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford recently vetoed a proposal for the 2020 Games just before it was to be submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Richardson said, “for 2020 we weren’t even planning on bidding, but then we saw that the field was very favourable to Toronto and quickly tried to put something together. It was a tough ask of political leaders to give their support on such short notice”.
According to The Globe and Mail, Richardson hasn’t approached the city or Ontario’s provincial government.
Mayor Ford’s press secretary, Adrienne Batra, said “…it would be difficult to speculate on whether this will come to fruition” since the mayor has not yet been approached. She added, “I can say we are looking forward to Pan-Am Games in 2015”.
A Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) spokesman said it was “highly speculative” to be talking about 2024 this early, but added that the organization would “act in the best interests of athletes and sport in Canada”.
Toronto is hosting the 2015 Pan-Am Games and could follow Rio de Janeiro’s example after it hosted the Pan-Ams in 2007 and ended up with the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Richardson added, “people in Toronto think we have been slighted when, by international standards, we’re newbies. This is moose hunting and it’s long-term. We’re not going after squirrels here. Sometimes it takes a while to get there”.
Formal bidding for the 2024 Games begins in 2015 and the winner will be announced in 2017.
