A worker manouevers is vehicle past an entrance to the Los Angeles Coliseum, which played host to the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics, in Los Angeles, California on August 31, 2015. The Los Angeles city Council members vote September 1,on the city’s bid for the 2024 Olympics in a move seen as an important step toward securing nomination as a candidate by the US Olympic Committee. AFP PHOTO
LOS ANGELES, United States—Four-time Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans has joined the Los Angeles 2024 bid committee as vice chair, bid officials said Thursday.
Evans, a Southern California native whose Olympic career spanned three Games, will lead the bid committee’s athletes’ commission.
“We are totally committed to putting athletes at the very heart of our Games plan,” bid chief Casey Wasserman said in a statement.
“Janet will ensure that we remain in dialogue with the athletes and constantly identify new ways to refine and improve our offering.”
Evans won all three of her races in her Olympic debut in 1988 and added gold and silver medals four years later.
She broke seven world records in three events during her career.
“As a native Southern Californian and passionate supporter of bringing the Games back to the US for the first time in 28 years, I’m honored to join this team and will do everything I can to help LA’s bid,” said Evans, who ended her Olympic career after the 1996 Atlanta Games—the last Summer Games to be held in the United States.
Los Angeles is a latecomer to the 2024 race, taking over as the US bid city after a Boston bid unraveled.
The International Olympic Committee has five cities to consider—Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Rome and Paris—with the host to be named in September of 2017.
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