Olympic Games: IOC officially announces double award to Paris and Los Angeles

The historic double award is perfect: the IOC has its 131th IOC at an emotional meeting.The Olympic Games 2024 and 2028 will be awarded to Paris and Los Angeles in the 20th session in Lima/Peru.The IOC’s General Assembly had already decided on the double award in July, but had to announce it officially.

IOC President Thomas Bach asked the 90 IOC members to vote on the tripartite agreement between the IOC and the two cities, which regulates the special award.We have two big cities from two great nations with a great Olympic past,”Bach said and spoke again of a win-win-win-win situation.

The delegations of both cities were very happy and relieved after the election:”We carry the Olympic flame in our hearts.We will put our heart and soul into this mission,”said Tony Estanguet, Co-President of the Paris Candidate Committee.He is already looking forward to the opening ceremony on 2.August 2024.Paris has recently failed with three applications (1992,2008,2012).

Los Angeles, which will also host its third summer games after 1932 and 1984, was also full of euphoria:”We will be in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening and then on the weekend,”promised application manager Casey Wasserman.Bach is expected to be a guest at the party at home, after which the IOC chief travels to Paris for the celebrations.

On the day of the decision, both cities had another 25 minutes to present themselves with speeches and films.Paris relied on its colourful diversity and once again had a great patron in President Emmanuel Macron.The 39-year-old was connected by video message and promised to support the whole country.Los Angeles showed the diversity of its sports facilities and relied on its long Olympic history since 1932.

The last two remaining cities in the 2024 struggle had previously been eligible for the IOC under the Tripartite Convention on the order of the host cities.Paris had the better arguments for 2024, because the Seine metropolis will be hosted again exactly 100 years after the last edition.

Compared to Paris, Los Angeles has significantly more supporters in its own city (76 percent) and relies on a purely privately financed staging.Bach made such good financial concessions to the Californian metropolis, which will host summer games for the third time after 1932 and 1984, that at the end of the day LA was happy to give way to Paris.

“This agreement was too good that they could not refuse,”said Mayor Eric Garcetti.The financial consolation can grow to up to two billion euros. The Californian metropolis collects 1.5 million euros from the IOC.A further 500 million euros can be made available through marketing deals, support for youth sports projects and the transfer of a possible surplus.

The IOC did not want to scare off any of the important candidates in times of shortage of applicants and plans to host both cities.A hundred years ago, there had been a multiple allocation of summer games.At that time Paris and Amsterdam received the 1924 and 1928 games, later Los Angeles for 1932.