Rome 2024 Director General Diana Bianchedi traveled to International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne Friday to deliver required stage 2 bid documents, meeting the midnight deadline according to an insidethegames.biz report.
The submission of the documents indicates the desire of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) to remain in the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid race with Budapest, Los Angeles and Paris despite the recent refusal by Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi and her city council to support the project. Municipal support is a required component of the bid by the IOC.
City council voted 30-12 in support of the Mayor’s motion to cancel the bid, something she said would be “irresponsible” to underwrite while the city recovers from a recession.
Rome officials could at a future date provide letters of support which would make the bid viable moving forward, but that would require a political change that seems unlikely.
But it seems Raggi wants to end the bid immediately as she reportedly wrote a six-line letter to the IOC telling the organization that the Italian Capital has removed itself from the race. Technically, the application is owned by CONI and only that organization can call an end to the campaign.
IOC President Thomas Bach visited Rome earlier in the week and discussed the circumstances with CONI President Giovanni Malago. Bach later told media that while he did discuss the bid with Malago, he did not want to get involved in Italian politics.
Malago has said he will hold a press conference in Rome Tuesday.
Budapest, Paris and Los Angeles also delivered the documents on time Friday. The IOC Executive Board will review an evaluation of those documents December 6, and at that time will determine which bids qualify to move to the next stage.
Watch @GamesBids on Twitter for updates as this story develops.
