It looks like the Olympics are coming back to Los Angeles. The bidding for the 2024 games is down to two cities, Los Angeles and Paris, and the International Olympic Committee appears to be planning to give one city 2024 and the other 2028. Nothing is official, but that seems to be where things are headed. The announcement comes on Sept. 13.
Now Kobe Bryant is on board with trying to get the Olympics to come to Los Angeles for the third time.
Kobe made the announcement in a live video on the LA2024 Facebook page, at an event with Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans and broadcaster Al Michaels.
“I’m extremely excited about joining the board here and trying to bring the Olympics back to Los Angeles,” joking he planned to get his daughter ready for the games. “I’ve convinced my 14-year-old daughter to start training with me at 5 o’clock in the morning.”
First off, would anybody be shocked if Kobe still put in a two-hour workout at 5 a.m. every day that would put most active NBA players to shame?
Will Kobe’s presence at this point help the bid? It can’t hurt. There are 100 members on this board and it’s about showing the support of the city’s elite for the bid.
The Los Angeles area first hosted the Olympics in 1932, then again in 1984. It has the advantage of having a lot of the facilities already built and in place — by 2024 there will be the new Rams football arena, plus places such as Staples Center, the Forum, the Honda Center, Dodger Stadium, maybe the new Clippers’ facility, plus there is plenty of spaces for rowing, sailing, beach volleyball and a lot of spots from Long Beach through Santa Clarita. There’s not a lot of infrastructure work — read: expenses for local taxpayers — to do.
It looks as if L.A. will land a future Olympics. Kobe’s on board with that.
