Latest sports scores at — http://sports.arabtimesonline.com Paris, Los Angeles salute the right answer

Unique victory

LIMA, Sept 14, (Agencies): Paris and Los Angeles officials saluted a victory for the Olympic movement on Wednesday after both cities were handed the hosting rights for the 2024 and 2028 Games in a historic double award.

Paris 2024 bid co-leader Tony Estanguet was overcome with delight just moments after International Olympic Committee members unanimously approved a joint award that had been agreed in July.

“It’s a magical, unique victory,” Estanguet told reporters. “I’m feeling an emotion I have felt only rarely in my life.”

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo spoke of her joy in bringing the Games back to the French capital — exactly 100 years after they last hosted the Olympics in 1924 — and said the IOC was a winner too.

“We are three winners, two great cities,” Hidalgo said. “Today with Tony and all our team we are very proud and happy. It’s such a special emotion today — 100 years after, the Games come back to Paris. When Paris wins, France wins.”

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the decision to award Paris 2024 as a “victory for France”, calling for the “whole country” to get

Former UN Secretary-General and new Chair of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Ethics Commission Ban Ki-moon (right), delivers his speech during the 131st IOC session in Lima on Sept

14. (AFP) Paris 2024 bid delegation members, Paris 2024 Co-Chairman Tony Estanguet (left), Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo (center), and IOC member Guy Drut cheer during the 131st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Lima on Sept 13. The ICO meeting in Lima confirmed Paris and Los Angeles as hosts

for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics, crowning two cities at the same time in a historic first for the embattled sports body. (AFP)

behind the Games.

IOC President Thomas Bach said the awarding of two host cities at once was “a historic and happy day for the Olympic movement”.

“It really is the win-win-win we were looking for. I couldn’t be more happy than I am right now,” the German said.

Los Angeles 2028 officials, who had agreed to step aside in the race for 2024 in exchange for a package of financial sweeteners, said the IOC’s willingness to award two hosts simultaneously had been a game-changer.

“We cracked the code when the committee changed the formula,” Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti told AFP. “Talking to folks who said it used to be about one corner of the room celebrating and the rest crying. There was a real feeling of solidarity, co-operation and happiness today which I think is what this movement is supposed to be about. For my city I couldn’t be happier.”

Garcetti, a friend of Paris counterpart Hidalgo, said the two cities had enjoyed close ties for decades.

“This was the right answer, it was about fraternity, it was about friendship, it was about finding a win-win. The terms were too good to say no to,” he said.

“For me this is truly a day of real emotion. What does history feel like? It feels like this.”

Los Angeles 2028 bid chairman Casey Wasserman described the final confirmation as “thrilling, emotional, nerve-wracking and exciting.”

“There wasn’t a whole lot of suspense but it was a very special day,” Wasserman told AFP.

US track and field star Allyson Felix said she believed the 2028 Olympics would help inspire a new generation of athletes.

“I was born a year after the 1984 Games (in Los Angeles), and I remember seeing pictures of my brother being actually at those Games, and just so many people like Evelyn Ashford, who later became heroes of mine,” Felix said.

“I know that it’s going to produce the same for other people growing up.”

For the Paris team, landing the Games was a sweet moment to savour after bitter failures to host in 1992, 2008 and 2012.

Former French sprinter Marie-Jose Perec, a triple Olympic champion who was in Lima for the announcement, said Paris had won “much more than a gold medal”.

“We fought so hard in the other bids so it was really emotional in the room when our bid got through,” Perec said.

Baseball and softball’s chances of continuing as Olympic sports increased considerably on Wednesday after the city of Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 Olympic Games.

The two sports, which were thrown out of the Olympics after 2008, will make a one-off comeback at the 2020 Games in Tokyo — in a country where they are hugely popular — after organisers requested their inclusion under new International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules.

But Los Angeles’ success at the IOC session could see the Olympic life of the sports extended, with moves from the sports’ confederation for them to be included in Paris, which was awarded the 2024 Olympics on Wednesday, as well as Los Angeles, where the sports are well established.

“This is a historic day for the Olympic movement, and a great day for baseball and softball,” said World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) President Riccardo Fraccari.

“Today’s decision by the IOC adds immense potential for baseball and softball to remain on the programme beyond the Tokyo 2020 Games.”

Fraccari said the WBSC would now seek official inclusion in both the Paris and the Los Angeles Games sports programme.

“Our first step in the coming weeks and months will be communicating to the IOC and the Paris 2024 Organising Committee how our sports can contribute to a spectacular Games and to the development of sport in France.”

Baseball and softball were the first sports to be taken off the Olympic programme in 69 years when the IOC voted to exclude them in 2005 from the London 2012 Games.

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