LA and Paris await 2024 inspectors
GENEVA: Los Angeles and Paris, both already seen as winning options for the 2024 Games, await their Olympic inspectors this week.
The cities will host three-day visits by an International Olympic Committee panel, whose chairman has no doubt about their hosting credentials.
“I think today at least you can already say, either way, we will have fantastic Olympic Games,’’ IOC evaluation commission chairman Patrick Baumann told The Associated Press.
IOC president Thomas Bach seems so sure of the candidates’ qualities that he asked his four vice presidents for advice on also bringing the 2028 Olympics into play, rewarding both cities with hosting duties.
That guidance is due in July, so Baumann’s 13-member group will press on with scheduled work in Los Angeles starting today, then in Paris from Sunday.
Each visit ends with Baumann taking questions at a news conference.
“There is no change in the scope and t he role and the mandate,’’ Baumann said of the possible dual award affecting his eventual report to IOC members.
In the typically secretive world of Olympics elections, it is unclear how many voting members are swayed by the type of report they will get from Baumann’s team on July 5.
IOC inspections typically do not rank candidate cities, and a more flexible evaluation process introduced for the 2024 contest will look to stress the positives.
The IOC says it will also publish the report on its website.
“It is not about finding the black spot,’’ Baumann said.
Meanwhile, the Paris 2024 Olympic bid committee welcomed the election of probusiness Emmanuel Macron as France’s new president, after concerns that a win for his populist rival Marine Le Pen could have damaged the bid.
Paris bid committee co-chairmen Tony Estanguet and Bernard Lapasset said that Macron “understands the power of sport and how the Games can be a force for real change and help build inspiration and inclusion.’’