Let the games begin! Paris and Los Angeles will host the summer Olympics in 2024 and 2028, Forbes is reporting, and likely in that order.
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, called the move “a golden opportunity for the Olympic Games and for the I.O.C,” noting: “two such great cities…promoting the Olympic games and the Olympic spirit in such a great way.”
There are a multitude of reasons the cities would be pinned to those specific years, Forbes notes, and one is due in no small part to America’s current political climate.
“There’s absolutely no question that President Trump is a huge liability for L.A., big time,” Andrei S. Markovits, Professor of European Politics at the University of Michigan, told Forbes.
If Trump’s proposed travel ban is in place, for example, it would impact athletes and visitors from a number of Muslim countries.
Awarding Los Angeles the 2028 Olympics would ensure that they would not occur under President Trump’s administration, even if he were to win a second term.
On a more sentimental note, Paris’ hosting of the 2024 games would fall on the 100th anniversary of the last time the city of love hosted the Olympics, in 1924.
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