Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid is official

Los Angeles 2024 logo
1 Comment

Los Angeles is bidding for the 2024 Olympics.

USOC CEO Scott Blackmun made the announcement Tuesday afternoon in nearby Santa Monica, one hour after the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously in favor of the bid and two weeks before the International Olympic Committee deadline for 2024 Olympic bid submissions.

Los Angeles previously hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympics, but Blackmun called the city’s quest for a third Olympics the ushering in of “a new Olympic era.”

“L.A. has the proven experience in hosting the Games, and knows how to deliver world-class events for athletes and an extraordinary experience for fans,” Blackmun said in a press release. “Coupled with the city’s culture of creativity and innovation, we are confident L.A. can deliver an outstanding Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024.”

Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome previously announced bids. IOC members will vote to choose the 2024 host city in 2017.

On Aug. 12, USOC leaders said they hoped to wrap up a Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid by the end of August, a replacement bid two weeks after the Boston 2024 bid was dropped.

“We did not take the most direct route to get here today,” Blackmun said, citing “challenging circumstances.”

Los Angeles 2024 bid chairman Casey Wasserman added, “What should have taken nine months we got done in two weeks.”

L.A. City Council member Mitch O’Farrell compared what lies ahead for a potential Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid to a marathon.

“We are the tortoise, and perhaps the other cities [Hamburg, Paris and Rome] are the hare,” O’Farrell said. “We are in a pretty good place entering into this marathon.”

Los Angeles was one of four finalists last year, with Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., for the U.S. bid. Boston was chosen Jan. 8.

Last week, Los Angeles officials published a bid book with details of the 2024 plan, including venues, renderings and a logo. L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti called the plan prudent, responsible, fully achievable and completely sustainable.

L.A. 2024: Los Angeles Olympic venue plan includes Rose Bowl, Forum, Coliseum, Dodger Stadium

“This city is the world’s greatest stage,” Garcetti said at the Santa Monica press conference, surrounded by Olympic champions such as swimmer Janet Evans, diver Greg Louganis, decathlete Bryan Clay, gymnast Peter Vidmar, boxer Oscar De La Hoya and sprinter Carmelita Jeter, plus 2000 Olympic baseball champion manager Tommy Lasorda. “This is the greatest sporting city on the face of the Earth.”

The Los Angeles bid proposes 2024 Olympic dates of July 19 through Aug. 4, the same dates as the Atlanta 1996 Olympics and of the failed Boston 2024 Olympic bid. The Paralympics would be Aug. 14-27.

Los Angeles will try to join London as the only cities to host an Olympics three times. Paris is also vying for its third Olympics, 100 years after it last hosted the Games.

“The Olympics are in our DNA,” Garcetti said.

The U.S. is in the midst of its longest stretch between hosting Olympics since the 28-year gap between Los Angeles 1932 and the Squaw Valley 1960 Winter Games.

It last hosted a Winter Games in 2002 (Salt Lake City) and a Summer Games in 1996 (Atlanta).

2024 Olympic bidding news

Hilary Knight leads new-look U.S. women’s hockey roster for world championship

Hilary Knight
Getty
0 Comments

Hilary Knight headlines a U.S. women’s hockey roster for this month’s world championship that lacks some of the biggest names from last year’s Olympic silver-medal team. Changes have been made as the U.S. looks to end losing streaks to Canada, both overall and in major finals.

The full roster is here. Worlds start Wednesday in Brampton, Ontario, and run through the gold-medal game on April 16.

It was already known that the team would be without stalwart forwards Kendall Coyne Schofield, who plans to return to the national team after having her first child this summer, and Brianna Decker, who announced her retirement last month.

Notable cuts include the No. 1 goalies from the last two Olympics: Alex Cavallini, who returned from Christmas childbirth for the tryout camp this past week, and Maddie Rooney, the breakout of the 2018 Olympic champion team.

Cavallini, 31, was bidding to become the first player to make an Olympic or world team after childbirth since Jenny Potter, who played at the Olympics in 2002, 2006 and 2010 as a mom, plus at several world championships, including less than three months after childbirth in 2007.

Forward Hannah Brandt, who played on the top line at last year’s Olympics with Knight and Coyne Schofield, also didn’t make the team.

In all, 13 of the 25 players on the team are Olympians, including three-time Olympic medalists forward Amanda Kessel and defender Lee Stecklein.

The next generation includes forward Taylor Heise, 23, who led the 2022 World Championship with seven goals and was the 2022 NCAA Player of the Year at Minnesota.

The team includes two teens — 19-year-old defender Haley Winn and 18-year-old forward Tessa Janecke — who were also the only teens at last week’s 46-player tryout camp. Janecke, a Penn State freshman, is set to become the youngest U.S. forward to play at an Olympics or worlds since Brandt in 2012.

Abbey Levy, a 6-foot-1 goalie from Boston College, made her first world team, joining veterans Nicole Hensley and Aerin Frankel.

Last summer, Canada repeated as world champion by beating the U.S. in the final, six months after beating the U.S. in the Olympic final. Canada is on its longest global title streak since winning all five Olympic or world titles between 1999 and 2004.

Also at last summer’s worlds, the 33-year-old Knight broke the career world championship record for points (now up to 89). She also has the most goals in world championship history (53). Knight, already the oldest U.S. Olympic women’s hockey player in history, will become the second-oldest American to play at a worlds after Cammi Granato, who was 34 at her last worlds in 2005.

The Canadians are on a four-game win streak versus the Americans, capping a comeback in their recent seven-game rivalry series from down three games to none. Their 5-0 win in the decider in February was their largest margin of victory over the U.S. since 2005.

Last May, former AHL coach John Wroblewski was named U.S. head coach to succeed Joel Johnson, the Olympic coach.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

U.S. women’s rugby team qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics as medal contender

Cheta Emba
Getty
0 Comments

The U.S. women’s rugby team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics by clinching a top-four finish in this season’s World Series.

Since rugby was re-added to the Olympics in 2016, the U.S. men’s and women’s teams finished fifth, sixth, sixth and ninth at the Games.

The U.S. women are having their best season since 2018-19, finishing second or third in all five World Series stops so far and ranking behind only New Zealand and Australia, the winners of the first two Olympic women’s rugby sevens tournaments.

The U.S. also finished fourth at last September’s World Cup.

Three months after the Tokyo Games, Emilie Bydwell was announced as the new U.S. head coach, succeeding Olympic coach Chris Brown.

Soon after, Tokyo Olympic co-captain Abby Gustaitis was cut from the team.

Jaz Gray, who led the team in scoring last season and at the World Cup, missed the last three World Series stops after an injury.

The U.S. men are ranked ninth in this season’s World Series and will likely need to win either a North American Olympic qualifier this summer or a last-chance global qualifier in June 2024 to make it to Paris.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!