The IOC later today will officially award the '28 Games to L.A., and Mayor Eric Garcetti called it a "huge win" for the U.S., the city and the "Olympic movement." Garcetti and LA '28 Chair Casey Wasserman are in Lima, Peru, for today's announcement, and Garcetti said, "L.A. has the Olympics in our blood, in our DNA. Casey and I were kids in 1984 when we hosted the Olympics ... and we want to reignite the movement." He noted the U.S. has "bid more than any country" for the Games the last few decades. Garcetti: "We’re finally, after a long drought, going to bring it home.” Wasserman noted there is a "great foundation to start from” in L.A., with “all of our venues in place.” Wasserman: "It’s the first time in an Olympic Games we won't have to build a single new venue. We could host the games ... in two months or 20 years." He said the organizing committee will "spend the next 11 years focusing on the experience and the opportunity to bring the creativity and innovation that is so inherent in the community in Los Angeles to the Olympic Games." Following the interview, NBC's Matt Lauer asked, “We have 11 years to go, so when do you think the discussion of traffic in L.A. begins? Is that like tomorrow?” (“Today,” NBC, 9/13).
YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE: LA '28 and Paris '24 both prepared national celebrations to mark the IOC vote. Fifty major landmarks in L.A. and other structures in past U.S. Olympic hosts Squaw Valley, Lake Placid and St. Louis began lighting up last night with the bid’s signature purple, yellow and pink colors and logo (Ben Fischer, Staff Writer).
