USC will house media if LA hosts 2024 Olympics


The committee responsible for Los Angeles’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics announced on Monday that members of the media would be housed on the USC campus if Los Angeles is awarded the games.

Speaking at UCLA, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is leading the initiative to bring the Olympics to Los Angeles, said that Metro extensions and improvements will provide an estimated 21- minute transit time between USC and UCLA where the committee is planning on hosting the athletes.

Historically, the media has been banned from living in the Olympic Village, where athletes are free to focus and train unimpeded. Garcetti cited the benefits of both UCLA and USC’s campuses, mentioning USC’s proximity to both the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Staples Center, in addition to its strong journalism school.

This is not the first time Los Angeles has relied on its educational institutions in facilitating Olympic activities. In the  1984  Olympics, the  Coliseum became the first stadium to host the Summer Olympics twice, after initially hosting the Olympics in 1932.

The committee backtracked on a plan for a new Olympic Village-esque development that would have cost the city and state billions of dollars.

The initial tentative plan for the village, announced last year, would have placed it in a rail yard called “Piggyback Yard,” located in Lincoln Heights near downtown. The feasibility of the location was called into question, with concerns stemming from the cost of buying the land and cleaning it up.

“We want to build the facilities where the athletes could train and feel at home right next to where they were living during that time,” Garcetti said. “That’s what we have right here.”

The International Olympic Committee will announce its selected host city next year.  Los Angeles is competing with Rome, Paris and Budapest for the honor of hosting the 2024 Olympics.

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