WESTWOOD—On Monday, January 25 it was announced that the committee bidding for the City of Los Angeles to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games has chosen UCLA as the place for the Olympic Village, which will house all competing athletes.
During a campus press conference on Monday, LA 2024 officials said they were attracted to UCLA’s newly built and recently renovated residence halls that have a modern design, spacious layouts, social gathering places and the latest technology. Another factor in the committee’s decision is that UCLA’s top-of-the-line training and medical facilities.
“UCLA’s state-of-the-art campus and accompanying world-class facilities provide the ideal environment for Olympians to live in and train as they prepare for the greatest competitions of their lives,” said LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman, a UCLA alumnus.
UCLA currently houses over 14,000 students in its residence halls. The campus has a strategic plan in place regardless of the Olympic bid — calling for 2,000 to 2,500 beds to be added, based on projected demand.
“We are thrilled by the opportunity to once again host the world’s athletes at UCLA, just as we did for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles,” UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said. “Our top-flight residential, dining and athletic facilities offer Olympians the perfect setting to prepare for competition and recover afterward. UCLA and the Olympic movement share the same ideals of athletic excellence and competition, as well as the conviction that international events such as these highlight our common humanity and build bridges of understanding and friendship between disparate nations and peoples.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was also present at the conference and stated, “We have carefully chosen facilities that are sustainable, fiscally responsible and athlete-friendly.”
The university will also serve as the venue for competitions in basketball (in Pauley Pavilion), water polo (Los Angeles Tennis Center) and field hockey (Drake Stadium). The University of Southern California has been selected by the LA 2024 committee as the site of bid’s media village.
Any costs associated with housing and dining for Olympians would be borne by LA 2024.
The International Olympic Committee is expected to select the site for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in September 2017.