Olympic and Paralympic Bid
The Los Angeles bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games continued to gain traction in 2016. Seeking to bring the Summer Games back to the U.S. for the first time in nearly three decades, LA 2024 pledges to connect the Olympic and Paralympic Games to the future with a high-tech, low-risk, sustainable and athlete-led concept that serves the Olympic Movement far beyond 2024. The privately funded Games plan—supported by an unprecedented 88 percent of Angelenos—will utilize only temporary and existing venues, including an Athletes Village at UCLA.
LA 2024 leadership continued listening and learning at various international meetings and events, including the SportAccord Convention in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games; and the Association of National Olympic Committees General Assembly in Doha, Qatar.
Two of three deliverables were submitted to the IOC—in February and October—as the innovative Games plan continued to take shape. In addition, LA 2024 launched its brand behind the #FollowTheSun slogan and vision of a new Games for a new era. Meanwhile, the bid formed an Athletes' Advisory Committee to keep athletes at the heart of the bid, and finalized the Joint Marketing Program Agreement with the USOC.
LA 2024 also released its balanced budget, with $5.3 billion in revenue and cost, including a contingency of close to half a billion dollars. With no new public infrastructure, development projects or permanent venues required to stage the Games in LA, the budget is both realistic and achievable. And, it was independently vetted by KPMG, which called it "substantially reasonable."
LA 2024 ended the year preparing to submit its final deliverable and planning for the IOC Evaluation Commission visit in hopes of a successful campaign that will culminate at the IOC Session in September 2017.
International Positions
The USOC has greatly increased U.S. involvement in international sports management, now with well over 500 board, executive committee or leadership positions at the global level. In 2016, three U.S. sport leaders were elected or re-elected as vice presidents of their respective International Federations, bringing the total number of U.S. vice presidents to 11.
Larry Probst and Scott Blackmun held a combined 11 leadership positions across the IOC, ANOC, the Pan American Sports Organization and the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Meanwhile U.S. IOC members Anita DeFrantz and Angela Ruggiero served in a total of 14 IOC roles.
Hosted Events
A committed partner to the global Olympic and Paralympic movements, the USOC proudly hosted seven world championships on home soil in 2016, including in biathle (Orlando, Florida), figure skating (Boston), hockey (Grand Forks, North Dakota), sailing (Clearwater, Florida, and Miami), track and field (Portland, Oregon) and triathlon (Oklahoma City).
In addition, the USOC played host to two PASO commission meetings, an ANOC commission meeting and the PASO Continental Athlete Forum.
Partnerships
The USOC maintained its eight bilateral agreements—aimed at sharing best practices and strengthening cooperation—with Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Russia and South Korea, as well as cooperation agreements with the Association of NOCs of Africa and the Olympic Council of Asia.
Further, the USOC supported delegation visits from the badminton, modern pentathlon and karate International Federations, and exchanges with El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Senegal and the Oceania NOCs. In total, the USOC hosted more than 2,600 athletes, coaches and officials from 71 nations at the three U.S. Olympic Training Centers.
Meanwhile, the USOC IR Grant Program—aimed at supporting the organization’s long-term strategy of being an active, constructive and committed partner in the Olympic Movement— awarded more than $300,000 across 24 NGBs.
Finally, the USOC, University of Delaware and IOC partnered for the eighth edition of the International Coaching Enrichment Certification Program, featuring 33 coaches representing five continents, 33 countries and 14 sports. The 2015–16 program launched in September and was conducted in four modules through April at the University of Delaware; the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado; apprenticeship sites around the U.S.; and the ANOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
