Questions abound over IOC’s likely dual award
For more than a decade, the U.S. Olympic Committee has been trying to bring the Summer Games back to America. But with that prospect closer than ever, it has more questions than answers.
The USOC and LA 2024 are in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the bid’s final briefing with the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday. During its meetings Tuesday, the IOC will vote on a recommendation to award the 2024 and 2028 Olympics to Los Angeles and Paris.
After that, the path forward remains unclear.
“There are going to be a lot of questions if they decide to go forward with the dual award just because we haven’t done it before,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said last month. “We’re going to make sure we understand what the rules of engagement are and take a close look at it.”
Should the IOC adopt the unanimous recommendation of its executive board, the path to its vote in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 13 is unknown.
In announcing the recommendation, IOC President Thomas Bach would not say what that might look like. A traditional bidding cycle would culminate with one city selected as the 2024 host.
But with a dual award, that could effectively be predetermined by any negotiations the IOC has with cities in the next two months. Or the IOC could determine what each city would need to accept a 2028 Games and vote between the two based on that information.
Last month, Bach said the IOC was not in a position to negotiate until its membership approved the dual award.
“After (the vote), for me, in an ideal world, would be an agreement between the three parties — the two candidate cities and the IOC and the agreement in the way I tried to indicate before, which makes each of the partners of this agreement winning partners.”
Acceptance of a 2028 award would come with myriad logistical hurdles, including contracts for venues and legislation that has already passed to serve as a financial backstop for the Games.
Publicly, Bach has rebuffed the notion of negotiating with the 2028 city, saying last month, “I don’t think you need to reward somebody if you give somebody a present.”
While Paris has said it could only consider 2024, officials for Los Angeles’ bid have conceded it’s smart to look at awarding both.
After the IOC’s evaluation commission visited in May, LA 2024 chairman Casey Wasserman told USA TODAY Sports that if his bid were to consider the dual award, the 2028 winner would need accommodations that would allow it to “benefit … disproportionately to the ’24 city.”
“I think both cities are in a position today where we’re bidding for ’ 24 because that’s all we’re allowed to bid for,” Wasserman said. “And I think both cities have more questions than answers to what it would mean to even consider ’24 and ’28.
“I think if it comes to that, whichever city would be ’ 28 would be able to point pretty clearly to things that were significant if it happened. Because otherwise I don’t think any city would accept it.”
With bids that rely heavily on existing infrastructure and venues, Los Angeles and Paris provide propositions with lower risks than the IOC has faced in recent memory.
A report from the IOC’s evaluation commission, released last week, found both bids to be outstanding with financial risks that are low for this stage of planning.
The bids “have put the Olympic movement in a win-win situation, with very little to separate the two projects,” said Patrick Baumann, chairman of the evaluation commission.
Certainly, the USA wants the Games back. It has not hosted a Summer Olympics since 1996, and New York (2012) and Chicago (2016) have had failed bids since then.
But Blackmun said the USOC would view a 2028 Games through the lens of its mission, to help U.S. athletes win medals, and have discussions with the IOC after its vote.
“We’re really trying to begin to make sure that we have all the questions in place that would need to be answered, but at this point we’re focused on 2024, just like LA 2024 is,” he said.