Sources inside the IOC said that a bid by L.A. to host the 2024 Olympic Games "could fall victim to anti-American sentiment brewing" inside the organization, according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. The sources said that the bid, which is competing against three European cities, "risks an anti-U.S. protest vote by several IOC members angry over America's prominent role in pursuing doping allegations against Russian athletes." At least three non-Russian IOC members, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that "America's intervention into allegations of systematic Russian doping had marred the run-up to the Rio Games and tarnished the IOC brand." An IOC member said, "Of course the Los Angeles bid will face some consequences from this." None of the IOC members interviewed by Reuters "could give an estimate of how many of the IOC's 98 members were thinking along the same lines." Elections for host cities "can be decided by a handful of votes and be heavily influenced by politics." The head of the LA 2024 bid team, Casey Wasserman, said that "it would not make sense for IOC members to vote against Los Angeles on the basis of investigations totally unrelated to its bid" (REUTERS, 8/22).
