(ATR) Chairman of the IOC Evaluation for the 2024 Olympics Patrick Baumann says the commission has a difficult decision brewing.
The commission met for the first time in Lausanne, Switzerland from March 29-30 to begin its review of candidate cities Los Angeles and Paris.
"The Commission’s work is just beginning, but it is already clear that both candidates have embraced the spirit of Olympic Agenda 2020," Baumann said at the close of the two-day meeting in the Olympic capital.
The IOC says L.A. and Pairs will be the first candidates to "receive the full benefits" of the Olympic bidding reforms spearheaded by IOC president Thomas Bach.
"The IOC’s strategic roadmap significantly increased the IOC’s support and gave the Candidate Cities more flexibility to design Games that play to their city’s strengths and advance long-term development goals," the IOC said in a statement.
Baumann and the 12 other members on the commission will visit Los Angeles and Paris on May 10-12 and 14-16, respectively. The commission visit follows the 2024 bid cities’ second presentations to Olympic stakeholders at next week’s SportAccord Convention in Aarhus, Denmark.
"We are looking forward to taking a closer look at these two strong candidates during our site visits, to see in more detail how these well-developed plans would come to life at Games time and leave sustainable legacies," said Baumann, the replacement to Frank Fredericks as chairman of the commission when Fredericks stepped down on March 7.
The cities will also have the opportunity to report to the entirety of IOC membership at a Candidate City briefing in Lausanne on July 11 and 12 before the final vote at the IOC Session in Lima, Peru on Sep. 13.
Written by Kevin Nutley
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