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Los
Angeles 2024 bid plays down concerns after Trump win
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 [November 16, 2016]
DOHA (Reuters) - Los Angeles
2024 Olympic bid leaders on Tuesday sought to allay concerns within
the Olympic movement following Donald Trump's U.S. presidential
election victory, saying the candidacy would continue to "celebrate
our diversity".
Los Angeles, bidding to host the summer Games for a third time after
1932 and 1984, was seen as the front-runner in the race with Paris
and Budapest until Trump's election this month.
Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, had warned that victory
for Republican Trump would not help the bid given the makeup of the
98 voting members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
membership.
Trump courted controversy in the run-up to the election with
campaign proposals including a call to ban Muslims from entering the
United States and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.
"We just finished our presidential election and some of you may
question our commitment to our founding principles," Los Angeles bid
official Allyson Felix, a six-times Olympic track and field
champion, told a meeting of national Olympic committees in Doha.
"I have one message for you. Please do not doubt us. America's
diversity is our greatest strength."
The audience included IOC President Thomas Bach as well as
international sports federation presidents and IOC members as the
three cities made the first of three official presentations ahead of
the vote next year.
Felix said Los Angeles needed the Games "now more than ever" to help
make the United States better.
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Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti and Angela Ruggiero during a LA2024
Los Angeles bid press conference during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic
Games at Olympic Gold Course. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY
Sports
"We are a nation of people whose descendants came from all over the
world for a better life," she said.
"We are also a nation with individuals like me, descendants of
people who came to America, not of their own free will but against
it," she added.
"But we're not a nation that clings to our past, no matter how
glorious - or how painful. Americans rush toward the future."
The IOC will choose the winning bid at its session in Lima, Peru in
September, 2017.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)
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