Feeling Great (-ish) RE: IOC Vote for '24 and '28

Around noon July 11 word arrived (in the form of back-to-back media advisories from the International Olympic Committee, LA2024 and Paris 2024 and a live stream) that an unanimous vote in Switzerland will change the game for summer Olympic Games bids and hosting.

And now the world officially knows, for the first time in a single IOC Session, Olympic leadership will award both the 2024 and 2028 summer Olympics through a vote set to take place in Lima, Peru, two months from now. 

If IOC President Thomas Bach has his druthers, the dates for the next Games of Los Angeles and Paris will be known as early as August, with the September decision a mere formality. During his remarks with the mayors of Paris and L.A., the notion of "everyone wins" came up repeatedly, and this is apt. 

I applaud change and innovation. It also was good to see the official (and outstanding/flawless) presentations by Los Angeles and Paris earlier today. See the base of this post for the YouTube versions.

During the joint press conference featuring Bach and the mayors of both bid cities flanked by the bid leadership, I was trying to get a read on Casey Wasserman. 

On one hand, there must be some relief. The Olympics WILL RETURN to Los Angeles. Bravo!

On the other hand, there's gotta be a twinge of ... I don't know the right words ... a waft of sour grapes over the decision. Like two Olympians worthy of gold, two Olympic-level committees brought their A-Game, and the IOC is trying to divvy out two top-of-podium medals as if only a millisecond or micrometer separates the two champions from victory. Don't both "Olympians" in this fight deserve to know THE victor for posterity? 

I singled out Wasserman for a read on this because I believe it was his passion and communications savvy that kept LA in the race even with Boston's false start win early in the 2024 domestic race. Though I can only armchair quarterback on the Olympic bid front, I've been in a similar seat-- for comparison, I sat at PRSA and PR Week Award ceremonies awaiting word as to which client (mine or another agency's) would take home top honors, and tie wins kinda suck more than getting a silver! 

Wasserman's game face was all smiles, but I can't help wonder what he said behind closed doors with family or closest associates with less skin in the game. Was he beaming with glee or relief, or a little bit disappointed that his team will always have to wonder "who won, damnit!?"

But this is just speculation and Olympic armchair quarterbacking. I am thrilled that Los Angeles and Paris will follow Tokyo's 2020 Games in some order. The 2020's will be an outstanding and thrilling decade for summer Olympiads, period. Everyone wins, indeed!

Photo via LA2024

LA2024 Dazzles on Days Two and Three of Evaluation Commission

Days two and three of the 2024 IOC Evaluation Commission visit to Los Angeles were as jam-packed for media as they were for the future Games selection team.

The combined LA2024 and U.S. Olympic Committee media relations crew treated attending reporters to a full Thursday of venue visits including two university campuses, a Metro station press conference and multiple photo opportunities or bid-centric press events.

May 9 began early at Staples Center, where IOC members took turns shooting hoops on the LA Lakers' home court. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, LA2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman and IOC Member Anita DeFrantz also practiced layups and cheered when visiting delegates found "nothing but net" through informal basketball play.

Then two groups of Evaluation Commission members embarked on site visits in separate corteges, with media site visits on a parallel track to the IOC tour experience.

Stop one: The University of Southern California, home of the Trojans and the nation's No. 1 school in terms of total Olympians (451 since the early 1900's). Media heard from Olympic track champion and USC alum Allyson Felix before experiencing a walking tour of a soon-to-open modern dorms that would house the Olympic media village in 2024.

We also toured USC's Annenberg School of Communication, which would house the 2024 Olympic Media Village operations center close to new dorms which reporters visited.

A quick bus ride over to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum lined up with the IOC's morning visit inside the stadium, which apparently included a foot race between Garcetti and at least one Olympic track champion from 1984.

We learned later in the day that more than 50 Olympians met with the Evaluation Commission, with the first women's Olympic marathon champion Joan Benoit Samuelson sharing a tearful reunion with a fellow LA84 gold medalist Nawal El Moutawakel, who is now an IOC member (both women achieved remarkable "firsts" as female competitors on the same track).

Brief sidebar: The coliseum photo opportunity marked my fourth visit to the venue, and not the first time the cauldron was aglow, but this was the first daytime and ignited flame combination and it was remarkable in that the morning sun and cloudless sky brightened the historic stadium's adobe-hued exterior.

More walking ensued, this time past USC's historic and wonderfully fragrant rose garden (we did, in fact, stop to smell them).

A few hundred meters later we were greeted by -- surprise -- local resident and longtime environmental champion Ed Begley, Jr., on site for an outdoor press conference to promote the fifth anniversary of the LA Metro Expo Line service between downtown Los Angeles and points west.

Our entourage boarded buses to arrive at the University of California at Los Angeles in time for a superior campus dining experience. Several inquisitive undergrads asked me about what our group was doing on site -- our objective, to experience a sample of an afternoon in the potential future Olympic Village.

LA2024's proposal to house the athletes in existing or new dorms is a key differentiator for the bid, saving piles of money while harnessing a fantastic, well-developed and mature tree-filled campus atmosphere. Our hosts pointed out several residences build when the school hosted one of LA84's villages.

We must have walked 5,000 steps on site, including peeks at student gyms, three student swimming pools, Pauley Pavilion (site of Mary Lou Retton's perfect score in 1984) and the school's sports hall of fame celebrating, among thousands of alumni athletes, the school's 420 Olympians.

LA2024 has a strong asset in that the UCLA Olympic Village existed even before the '84 Games, and as announced just after the IOC visit the same day, another batch of several hundred rooms are planned for the campus.

With slightly sore legs and definitely smarting feet, media departed for the beaches of Santa Monica for the IOC's and LA2024's Day Two media Q&A, this time framed by a perfect sunset and light ocean breeze.

The purple and pink skyline over nearby Malibu and Santa Monica Mountains gave attendees a dreamy "Follow The Sun" moment.

As an after-dinner sendoff from the press conference venue, the Annenberg Beach House, a troupe of six synchronized swimmers dove into a logo-ed swimming pool, reminding attendees of LA2024's fast-paced and precise timing executed consistently through the three-day Evaluation Commission process. The swimmers' smiles above the surface, all the while furiously kicking and positioning, may echo the hard work of LA2024's team to prepare and execute the key milestone in the IOC selection process.

Friday morning brought just two press conferences, one each for the IOC and LA2024 officials, again at Staples Center. At the latter Q&A I asked Garcetti and Wasserman to expand on their professional relationship and friendship through the bid process since the IOC had nicknamed them the "1984 boys" who were youthful Angelinos during that summer's Olympiad.

"We met in our 20's," said Garcetti, answering whether they knew each other as kids or teens.

Garcetti went on to explain that his very first official action as LA's newly-elected mayor was to deliver a letter confirming his interest, support and passion for a bid. Now many months later, he confidently summed up the collective efforts of the combined LA2024/City of Los Angeles team.

"We keep looking for a hole in this bid, and we can't find it," said Garcetti.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

Games-Minded Media Explored Potential Olympic Venues While IOC Evaluation Commission Quizzed LA2024 Leadership on Wednesday

The official first day of the 2024 IOC Evaluation Commission on Wednesday included more than a half-day of Q&A for LA2024 bid executives and simultaneous venue tours for media during the closed selection process.

May 10 began early with International Olympic Committee officials greeting LA2024's bid team to their 35 hot seats facing two rows of about 20 Evaluation Commission desks in a large downtown conference room. 

Media enjoyed access to opening remarks by IOC Member and Commission Chair Patrick Baumann before the Los Angeles team leaders -- including the city's Mayor Eric Garcetti and LA2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman flanked by the IOC's three delegates to the United States Anita DeFrantz, Angela Ruggiero and Larry Probst -- took turns sharing personal stories of their past Los Angeles Olympic experiences. 

Citing her review of 74 Olympic bid campaigns and her work on eight previous USA bids, DeFrantz put into context the task at hand for her fellow IOC members across the table.

"One of the biggest responsibilities of IOC membership is selecting host cities," DeFrantz said, adding her colleagues at LA2024 are the "finest [she had] ever seen."

Wasserman and Garcetti earned the nickname "boys of the Olympics" of 1984 as both were kids when Los Angeles last hosted the summer Games. DeFrantz spoke of the many legacies of LA84 while Probst and Ruggiero spoke of their passion for a future legacy should the IOC's decision favor California when the Commission votes in September.

Paris, which also hosted two summer Olympiads and presented bids for 1992 and 2012 is LA's lone candidate, with the IOC and media embarking to France this Friday.

I snapped a few photos from the media platform and spotted many faces of LA2024 staff who appeared relaxed and eager to share their part of the city's bid presentation. Calm, cool and collected are each apt descriptors for everyone with the bid team, and though many must have felt a degree of relief after Wednesday's most intense of the three-day Commission visit, guarded confidence seems to reign with this group. 

After the opening session, media boarded buses to the day's first tour stop, Pasadena's iconic Rose Bowl. Olympic medalist and world champion Brandi Chastain spoke with reporters outside the stadium before joining the entourage of reporters and cameras on the field that made her a world icon of female strength. 

In her prepared remarks, Chastain mentioned her first Olympic experience came as a teenage volunteer during LA84. During some 1x1 Q&A on the way into the stadium, I asked her to expand on that story of the first experience, and Chastain explained she vividly recalled "waiting hours and hours for her uniform and credential" and how that experience became "... just a preview, and I didn't know it, of what it would be like to be part of the Olympic Family." 

After on-the-field photos and a few more questions, media trekked south an oceanside rooftop experience atop the Long Beach Hyatt Place Hotel overlooking the harbor, Queen Mary cruise ship, shipping cranes and the sands that would welcome spectators for water polo, triathon. sailing, BMX cycling, open water swimming and handball. 

Southern California-based Olympians Tony Azevedo and Haley Anderson spoke briefly and answered questions on their roles with LA2024's Athlete's Advisory Team. 

The high rise media stop also afforded me a few minutes to speak with Olympic gymnastics champion Nastia Liukin, who joined the media tours most of the day to photograph and post several social media items in real time. We chatted about the bid team experience and a few mutual connections to Olympic gymnastics in Oklahoma.

Then the group was off again to Stubhub Center at which media enjoyed lunch and more venue peeks before LA2024's press conference announcing a detailed Sustainability Plan. Slightly exhausted and sunburned in spite of an overcast sky, media returned downtown in time for a pair of end-of-Day-One press conferences hosted by the IOC and LA2024, respectively, at Staples Center. 

During his IOC press conference remarks, Baumann briefly described LA2024's "excellent proposal" while citing the bid's innovative "two-ceremonies" plan which would double the seating capacity for the opening and closing of 2024's Games by filling Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the new LA Rams' stadium set to open in 2019.

At the LA2024 press conference held courtside (with the mayor and Wasserman standing on the LA Lakers' free throw line) "the boys" described many aspects of the day's Q&A and anticipation of Thursday's venue visits for the IOC. Several reporters asked questions that were on my brain (see here and here for a few responses) while I asked about how the bid might serve as a reboot for the Cultural Olympiad (the mayor responded on point, describing involvement of Getty Trust leadership rallying the arts community for programs spanning several Southern California museums and arts organizations. 

LA2024 capped the evening with a media night in the BMW box at LA Dodgers Stadium (great fun). In the suite, fellow-Atlantan Stan Kasten -- a former client of sorts (in his leadership role for the Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Thrashers, we worked on a few photo opps with him to open Philips Arena in 1999) -- showed up to say hello.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

Dozens of Media Follow The Sun and LA2024 to IOC Evaluation Commission Meetings May 10-12

More than 150 media from at least five continents descended on Los Angeles in recent days for the International Olympic Committee's 2024 Evaluation Commission meetings opening today and continuing through Friday.

The IOC will hear presentations and pose questions to guide the selection of the 2024 summer Games host city, with their vote set to take place in Lima, Peru, this September.

Unofficial media hospitality events kicked off Tuesday as the LA2024 Olympic bid team signed in arriving media at the press room at LA Live, the downtown entertainment district inclusive of Staples Center and the GRAMMY Museum.

About two dozen early arrivals joined LA2024's media relations team and other officials for an "authentic Angelino commute" including a short downtown walk and ride on the city's expanding Metro system.

Disembarking at the Hollywood station, attendees enjoyed a green room experience and mini-concert during the taping of the May 9 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Kimmel took time between segments to visit with media and answer a few questions about his take on Los Angeles' bid to host the city's third Olympiad following 1932 and 1984.

When asked whether and which Olympiads he had personally experiences, Kimmel answered that he attended the Games in Atlanta and London and enjoyed both tremendously.

The late night comedian also joked with international reporters from Inside The Games regarding the outlet's neon green and hot pink colors on a staff writer's necktie.

The media entourage returned to downtown for a walk beside the iconic LA City Hall, Los Angeles Times offices, Disney Theater and The Broad museum, each lit up in the soft pink and purple colors of the LA2024 "Follow The Sun" logo.

Dinner at one of the city's newest and highly rated restaurants -- Otium -- included eight exquisite courses served from an open kitchen reminiscent of the prep area in Peter Greenaway's film "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" (I even spotted a young and blonde sous chef grating carrots to top the evening's dessert, much like movie's young cook's assistant).

Olympic gymnastics champion Nastia Liukin spoke briefly to provide a five-ringed welcome.

Today media will attend an opening session before a full day of venue tours. I'll post photos and updates later today as the bus is loading.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

Discover LA Rolls Out #EveryoneIsWelcome Mat On Eve of LA2024 IOC Evaluation Commission Visit

This week the good folks at LA2024 will host the IOC Evaluation Commission official visit to check out the Olympic bid city.

Upon receipt of "blogger Nick" media credentials for the festivities a few weeks ago, I booked passage to LAX for a week blending work and fun, family time (relatives in Thousand Oaks) and visits with a few longtime friends.

As a far away LA2024 registered volunteer, I was also mindful of potential options to donate hours while in town, and a fun opportunity -- via LA2024 partner Discover Los Angeles (the City of Angels' tourism authority) -- proved to provide a fun kind of card game at a park just north of the airport.

On Saturday morning it was fun to join hundreds of local Angelinos as stood in assigned spots on a field and followed instructions from an Israeli-American filmmaker engaged to create several "Everyone Is Welcome" human signs that greeting inbound flights to LAX.

On site, volunteers received a designated spot on a grid, a giant two-sided card (about five-feet square), sunscreen, shades and a loaner headset that at first seemed like a noise-cancelling device but proved to be the transmitter for our special instructions and cues to hold aloft our cards.

It was not easy to snap photos with hands full of card!

From the ground you could almost make out the faces of passengers on the jets overhead. No idea whether they could see our waving, but we were told a handful of planes included camera crews set to capture moving images. Two boom cameras and a small army of on-the-ground film crews also moved above and about our volunteer group.

For the morning shift, I was in spot Brown-157, about 10 spots from one side and three rows down from the top edge (the first "e" in the English sign "WELCOME" and also a part of the first "e" in the Spanish sign "BIENVENIDOS" (I hope that's not me who is the crooked part of the "e" in the Spanish image from the event.

After lunch I was more in the middle for a sign greeting Air China flights before we flipped for a two Middle Eastern jumbo jets on the approach to the airport's north runways.

It was fun making new friends including an aspiring actor, a preschool teacher, a special events coordinator for several top Hollywood awards events, and a woman who drove down from Oakland to volunteer (she would have had the record for longest distance traveled if this Atlanta-based blogger had not arrived). At least one LA television station filed a report from the stunt.

Also enjoyed brief visits with a few new friends from LA2024 including their media relations executive, volunteer coordinator and Anita DeFrantz of IOC, USOC, LA2024 and many other key organizations.

Check out the images and local Los Angeles TV coverage of Discover LA's work and recently-unveiled #EveryoneIsWelcome campaign.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver and/or Discover Los Angeles

Notes RE: Dr. Sammy Lee

Sad weekend news: Olympic diving champion Dr. Sammy Lee died in California at age 96, as reported by the LA Times.

I shared a fun, albeit brief, conversation with Lee at USA House in London during the 2012 Games. On an evening that included several Olympians visiting the house, including Shannon Miller and Prince Albert of Monaco, I spotted Lee attentively watching Olympic diving live on the monitors.  

Seated on a plush couch arranged in the center of the venue's main room, Lee explained he had returned to USA House from an afternoon diving preliminary, citing he was exhausted from the commute across the pond.

I don't recall the questions posed to him -- likely centered around his coaching with Greg Louganis at Seoul 1988 (see video) -- trying to ask only during breaks in the on-screen diving action, but his response after about my third question stuck with me.

He nodded off mid-sentence.

Later in the evening, as the night's gathering was winding down and visitors made their way outdoors to await hotel transportation, Lee spotted me and apologized for dozing. We spoke about the divers on screen and that was pretty much it.

Reading the online tributes to his decades-long career, I regret not being better versed in Lee's credentials -- would like to have asked more about 1948 and 1952, coaching later athletes, his role (if any) with LA84, and his contributions to other Olympic bids, including LA2024, which Tweeted the organization's condolences on Lee's passing.

One of the Tweet responses was a follower's suggestion that an LA2024 venue bear the name "Sammy Lee Aquatics Center." I kinda like the sound of that.

Photo via Olympic.org

Surf's Up for New LA2024 Olympic Bid Pins

On the home stretch to Rio 2016, Olympic pin collectors may anticipate a wave of board-shaped pins designed in homage to the city's surfing culture. 

Earlier this year, the U.S. Olympic Committee released a series of longboard pins inspired by Rio surfing culture.

In the set, each pin matches an actual surf board created for a sponsor appreciation display planned at USA House.

On the Olympic bid pin front, so far only one or two generic logo designs emerged from Budapest, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome, and there are some pins out there for the defunct Boston 2024 organization.

Until now.

At last night's 20th anniversary celebration for Atlanta's 1996 Games -- held in Centennial Olympic park with a stage for prepared remarks by several Games-related leaders -- LA24 Chairman Casey Wasserman decided the time was right for taking the drop, delivering the first boxed-set of new surfboard-shaped Olympic bid pins.

The lucky recipient? Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games CEO turned Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne. 

Wasserman handed the gift box of four surfboard pins while encouraging Payne and the crowd of thousands to "Follow the Sun" (LA24's bid theme) in support of America's next Olympiad.

On stage Payne thanked Wasserman, stating he appreciated the surfing tutorial as, at least during Payne's first glance, the pins' shape was not as self-explanatory as intended. 

Standing in the photo pit at the conclusion of the event, I asked Payne for a peek at the boxed set, which he held up for a photo. It was fun to inspect the new pin treasures -- Payne would not let the box out of his hand, so he must have considered them "keepers."

I'm no surfing guru, but upon inspecting the designs, each of the four pins appear to be wider than the longboard surfing pins the USOC previously released -- more in the shape of Payne's or my thumbprints. 

To me, the LA24 Olympic bid pins are more like wakeboards, perhaps to provide a wider space for the LA24 angel logo and the Olympic rings. 

I consulted some surfboard infographics and the aptly-titled "Riptionary" of surfing lingo, but found no surfboard shape exactly matched.

But who cares? These pins are gorgeous!

Each of the pins would certainly stand out upon a sport coat lapel or as a broach adorning a blouse. From left to right, the designs are:

• Soaring palm trees, like visitors might enjoy while driving through Beverly Hills

• Silhouetted cresting wave reminiscent of Malibu at sunset

• Barrel wave encircling the "angel" logo at the wrong angle for a body-surfing stance

• Sunrise over the San Gabriel Mountains and LA skyline

A possible fifth pin -- sans logos or rings -- appears to be a white cloisonné plaque on which "Follow The Sun" is painted in purple enamel. The cardboard presentation box also features colors from the bid palette.

I asked the LA24 media relations team to confirm the quantity and potential availability of the new bid pin sets and so far this was their response.

"Pins are a limited set, no plans for now on wider distribution."

My guess is the pins may be a special VIP gift for visitors to USA House in Rio, where LA24 will have a special display or other "to be unveiled" elements.

With known quantities historically a factor for bid pin collectors, I'll keep an open eye and ear for details. A boxed set of LA24 surfboard pins is now in the top five most-sought designs to add to my personal Olympic bid pin collection.

Until such time, wishing everyone some glorious and smooth tube riding to the Games of the XXXIst Olympiad, and happy pin collecting to all. 

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

The Neon Demon: Puerile, Aberrant, Cringeworthy ... Yet Irresistably Sensational

The new film "The Neon Demon" has absolutely no Olympic connection unless you count its setting, contemporary Los Angeles.

It's doubtful the fictional beauties -- or anyone in the fashion industry portrayed on this flashy silver screen horror story -- would align themselves with the LA2024 Olympic bid, which is probably a good thing for the hopeful future Games committee.

The next sentence includes two potential spoilers.

Walking out of "The Neon Demon" and shaking my head, I asked myself repeatedly whether the world really reached a point at which shock value may only be achieved through scenes including cannibalism and necrophilia?

I wondered, "Did the audience really need to see that?" and considered asking others murmuring similar distaste as we exited the theatre. (Answer: no.)

There were the warning signs that should have kept me away.

Reviews helped me learn a few new words that sent me hunting for a dictionary. "Puerile" stuck out in The New York Times' review, while "aberrant" was the apt term in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution mini-review from staff and wire reports.

But the same outlet with the harshest critical POV also published a video "anatomy of a scene" narrated by director Nicolas Winding Refn, and this trailer more than others reeled me in ... hook, line and sinker.

Though I eventually felt icky for spending $12 on the ticket, some of the film's provocative content did deliver entertaining bang for the buck.

Key scenes took me back to previous sleepers tied to Stephen King, including "Carrie" and "The Shining," and the bloodbath that takes shape in "The Neon Demon" is likely to earn cult status down the road (enticing me to lay down this review while the film remains fresh in my mind).

What stinks most about "The Neon Demon" is the story, which sort of plods along (especially the second half) like one of its models tripping on a catwalk.

Tension does crescendo, but curve balls mid-film are distracting -- when the young and stunning wannabe model (Elle Fanning) cuts her hand on a shard of broken mirror, for instance, an established and competing model licks the blood rather than try to stop its flow. Eww!

I did not understand nor care for the psychedelic dream sequences through which Fanning's character, Jesse, appears in her own kaleidoscopic settings. Pink Floyd references intended? Who cares.

Another distraction is Keanu Reeves. Though he is convincing as a Pasadena dive motel slum lord, spotting him only took me back to "Point Break" good guy scenes of the past. And even when he might have been raping a teenager off-screen, I only smirked for thinking of his monosyllable grunts of Ted on his 1989 excellent adventure.

What works, however, is the music, and it hit me 48 hours after watching that "The Neon Demon" functions well as a highly stylized extended music video rather than a feature film. It's surreal in the ballpark with Lady Gaga's promotion for "Bad Romance" or her meat dress days.

Perhaps if they took out most of the dialogue from "The Neon Demon," they could run the meticulous footage on MTV to promote Cliff Martinez's great score.

Savvy movie soundtrack buffs may recall the musician's earlier and outstanding work for thought-provoking films including "sex, lies, and videotape" or "Traffic," "Drive," "Arbitrage," or "Spring Breakers." I found myself queuing up the Shazam app several times during the film, and I predict Sia's original song contribution "Waving Goodbye" -- my favorite takeaway -- will emerge as an Oscar nominee.

As a longtime Jena Malone fan, it was pleasantly surprising to see her early in the film, but later disappointing, er, disturbing to see her take on the aforementioned necrophilia scenes. Yikes!

Like Nancy Kerrigan wailing, post-knee assault, all I could think was, "Whyyyyyyy, Jena, WHYYYYYY?!"

Malone's final scene, topless and knee-deep in a shallow grave, is reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp's "Etant donnes" (at right) in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so I'm now curious the extent to which the director and/or set decorator took inspiration from the multimedia work that took 20 years to create (1946 to 1966).

So "The Neon Demon" left me in a strange place because I don't really want to suggest that folks spend money or time on it.

With that said, in the long-run, if this film is going to become a much-debated piece of surreal art, then it may be worth a look-see for the sake of conversation.

Like Andy Warhol's car crash paintings, perhaps one can't help but look.

Images via Amazon Studios/Broad Green Pictures