USOC member says it’s ‘no guarantee’ Boston will bid for Olympics
Whispers that the United States Olympic Committee may opt to go with another city in bidding for the 2024 Summer Games got a little louder Monday, when a member of the USOC said it was indeed a possibility.
Angela Ruggiero, a USOC member who is on Boston 2024’s board of directors, testified during a City Council hearing on the Olympic bid. Asked whether Boston is assured to keep its status as the United States bid, she said there was “no guarantee’’ that it would.
The USOC chose Boston as its bidding city in January over Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. But it has until September 15 to formally name it as its representative to the International Olympic Committee.
Los Angeles has been the rumored city that could wind up with the U.S. bid if Boston were dropped. The Boston Herald reported Tuesday that some Los Angeles officials say the city would welcome the bid it if wound up in their hands.
Ruggiero said the USOC is still “vetting’’ Boston, but that it “want[s] Boston to succeed.’’ The USOC responded to questions about the status of the bid last week with a statement saying the committee is “100 percent behind Boston’s bid’’ and that there “is no truth whatsoever to the rumor that we have asked them to stand down, or that we are considering going to another city.’’ The committee re-issued the statement Monday after Ruggiero’s comments.
But Ruggiero’s implication that Boston is not a definite adds more fuel to a fire that started in March, when The Wall Street Journal reported the USOC may back away from Boston if public support does not rise. The USOC has since strongly denied the report.
Opposition group No Boston Olympics held a community meeting Monday night, at which co-chair Chris Dempsey said its goals include getting the USOC to drop the Boston bid before September. The city is holding its next public meeting on the Olympics tonight.
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