Mayor Re-election Aids Los Angeles Olympic Bid

(ATR) LA 2024 leader Casey Wasserman says Eric Garcetti will be a "tremendous asset for us" in the final six months of the bid battle with Paris.

Garcetti was re-elected to serve a second term as mayor of Los Angeles late Tuesday, receiving 80.1 percent of votes cast (202,278). His nearest rival garnered only 8.2 percent of the vote. It was the highest margin of victory in nearly a century of Los Angeles mayoral candidates.

Bid chairman Wasserman and U.S. Olympic Committee chief Larry Probst paid tribute to Garcetti’s enthusiasm to secure 2024 Olympic hosting rights.

On his first day in office in May 2013, Garcetti had written to Probst expressing the city’s interest in bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games back to Los Angeles.

Since then, he has helped oversee the domestic bid campaign, led international delegations and spoke at the bid’s first official presentation to the Olympic family at the ANOC general assembly in Doha last November.

"Like all of us at LA 2024, Mayor Garcetti recognizes that our plans align perfectly with the unstoppable upward trajectory of Los Angeles: as City Hall improves the lives of Angelenos, the City of Angels becomes more ready to host a low-risk, high-tech and truly sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024," Wasserman said in a statement.

Probst said Garcetti’s passion to host the Games "has only increased" since the mayor took office.

"He has been the ideal partner for the U.S. Olympic Committee throughout the bid process and if LA is elected the 2024 host city I have no doubt that he will be the ideal partner for the International Olympic Committee during those critical, pace-setting first years as an Organizing Committee," Probst said.

Saying he was "honored and humbled" to be reelected as mayor, the 46-year-old said: "We Angelenos have achieved a great deal together over the last four years, but we have big dreams and work still to do.

"Now we continue our journey towards opportunity, global leadership on the defining issues of our time and hosting an exceptional Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024 that welcomes the world to the city of the future."

Garcetti will play a significant role in welcoming the IOC evaluation team for the 2024 Olympics to Los Angeles in early May. Led by Patrick Baumann, it will scrutinize every aspect of the bidding concept over three days of meetings and site visits.

Paris 2024 will receive the same IOC treatment when Baumann’s inspection team visits the French capital May 14-16.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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