With just a little over a year until the International Olympic Committee selects a host city for the 2024 games, competition among the finalists is heating up. Leaders from Paris's Olympic bid arrived unexpectedly in Los Angeles this week, and the LA Times reports that they have been investigating several key locations that LA's bid committee has selected to play a part in the games if LA is chosen to host. The race for hosting responsibilities is down to four cities, with Paris and LA considered the frontrunners at this point (Rome and Budapest are also in contention). Here's a few places the French officials been poking around during their visit.
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Here's Where French Olympic Bid Leaders Are Snooping Around LA
The Paris 2024 bid committee is doing a bit of sightseeing in Los Angeles this week
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Embassy Of France
The Parisian group scheduled its trip through the French consulate, located on Santa Monica Boulevard just west of the Westfield Century City mall. The group includes the bid's chief executive, Etienne Thobois—himself a former Olympic competitor in badminton.
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The French officials apparently spent a great deal of time taking photos and video of the Coliseum, where LA 2024 plans to hold opening ceremonies for the games. Already the site of Olympic events in 1932 and 1984, the historic stadium isn't exactly state of the art. Still, as LA 2024 spokesman Jeff Millman points out to the Times, the Coliseum will soon be undergoing renovations and will look much different in 2024 than it does today.
Galen Center (GEC)
Home to USC's basketball and volleyball programs, the Galen Center would host taekwondo and badminton should LA succeed in its hosting bid. Given Thobois' history, it seems logical that the Paris chief would want to make sure the city's badminton facilities are second-to-none.
USC Housing
LA's bid has the USC campus serving as the important media village for the games. In addition to current student housing, the bid proposes using the mixed-use residential facility that the university is now constructing. With or without this addition, the village certainly stands to be an improvement over the accommodations media members received in Sochi.
UCLA
Paris officials made like a group of prospective freshmen Thursday morning and went on a tour of UCLA's student housing. That's where athletes would stay under LA 2024's plan. The bid committee notes on its website that "all of UCLA’s state-of-the art residential facilities are either newly built or recently renovated and incorporate modern design, spacious layouts, social gathering places, and the latest technology and conveniences."
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LA84 Foundation
And here's what's at stake. The 1984 Olympics were such an economic boon for Los Angeles that an entire foundation—LA84—was established to manage the surplus. The organization has provided funding for youth sports in Southern California since 1985. It is headquartered in the historic Eugene Britt House, designed by American Horror Story house architect Alfred Rosenheim. So far there's no indication Parisian officials have stopped by, but there's still plenty of time.
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