Los Angeles Olympic planners turned in the city’s final blueprint for the 2024 Summer Games this week.
It’s been years in the making. The $5.3 billion proposal calls for housing most athletes at UCLA and using both the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the new NFL stadium going up in Inglewood for the opening and closing ceremonies.
But now the real work begins, convincing the roughly 100 members of the International Olympic Committee that LA’s plan is better than what Paris and Budapest have to offer.
That effort is off to a rocky start, though, because of politics.
President Donald Trump’s order temporarily blocking refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries from traveling to the U.S. is extremely unpopular overseas. Some Olympic officials are saying the United States should not be awarded the games as long as the ban remains in place.
Could President Trump be an impediment to LA’s Olympic aspirations?
Los Angeles Times and Tribune newspapers sportswriter David Wharton says that barring an unexpected change in style and policy, it appears that he will:
“This is going to be a difficult situation and it has been since last summer,” Wharton says. “We heard grumbling about President – or then the candidate Trump – back at the Rio Olympics last summer. There’s a lot of people around the world who don’t like Trump’s stances on immigration, on international trade, on NATO, and that’s going to be something that’s going to be a problem for LA.”