International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach does not like losers and that is why Paris and Los Angeles could this year both win the right to host the world’s biggest and most complicated sporting event.
The French and US megacities are currently locked in battle to stage the 2024 Olympics, along with outsider Budapest.
However, there is mounting speculation that a committee meeting in September could give one of the front-runners the 2024 Games and at the same time award 2028 to the other.
The double gold medal event could take some twiddling of the Olympic machinery, but Bach said in December last year: “We have to take into consideration that the procedure as it is now produces too many losers.”
The committee is worried that if Paris or Los Angeles miss out on 2024, they might give up on hosting at all. And in times of economic uncertainty, it cannot afford to lose such quality candidates.
“You can be happy about a strong field in quantity for one day, but you start to regret it the next day, because then the procedure starts to produce losers and it is not the purpose of an Olympic candidature procedure to produce losers,” Bach said to support his call for change.
The committee has refused to say whether reform would be ready for the Sept. 13 vote in Lima.
“We are staying with the 2024 process, we are very clear about that,” IOC executive director for the Olympics Christophe Dubi told reporters.
Paris and Los Angeles have both said they are only interested in 2024.
However, Casey Wasserman, chairman of the Los Angeles 2024 bid committee, last month said that the idea of awarding two Games at the same time was “an interesting concept.”
Sources close to the committee said a double vote has many advantages.
If Paris loses again after being beaten for 1992 (Barcelona, Spain), 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London), it would almost certainly withdraw humiliated and not take part again.
Los Angeles, with its heavyweight US media backers, would almost certainly take the same view.
“I know that the idea of a double vote is on the table,” one source close to the committee told reporters.
“There is a clear procedure for 2024, that for 2028 is not yet set,” the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of discussions. “The candidates will have to show that they agree this double campaign. If they say ‘no,’ it will be difficult to impose it on them.”
If Paris, Los Angeles and Budapest agree to the vote change, then the committee would need the backing of the Association of National Olympic Committees and to talk to countries that have expressed an interest in 2028.
Madrid has already said it could be a candidate.
An IOC executive meeting in July could formally propose the move, then the Olympic charter would also need to be changed, another source close to the Olympic movement added.
“It’s quite clever of Bach,” said Patrick Nally, a sports marketing specialist who was one of the creators of the IOC’s the Olympic Partner sponsorship program.
“Bach is aware the IOC is facing difficulties,” Nally said. “One of the biggest concerns is what happens if LA doesn’t win.”
The IOC cannot afford to alienate the US, which was “the savior of the Olympic movement” when it risked financial troubles in the 1980s. Los Angeles held a landmark Games in 1984, NBC stepped in with a major TV deal and Coca-Cola was a huge sponsor.
“Paris is a great city, Paris lost a few times before, but it’s not commercially so important for the structure of IOC,” Nally said, adding that Bach “cannot afford to risk upsetting and destroying the one market IOC is totally dependent on.”
The IOC president has support among key Olympic members for a double vote, Nally said.
“It is a very practical suggestion; let’s make everybody winners and the Olympic movement a winner,” he added.
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