los Angeles is the official US nominee for the 2024 Olympic games — a dramatic turnaround for a city that just two months ago was considered out of the running.
But with a late surge of life brought on by Boston's dropout from the process, the city found itself on Tuesday as the US candidate, and its leaders were left feeling inspired and destined.
"This is a quest that los Angeles was made for," said Mayor Eric Garcetti. "This city is the world's greatest stage."
Garcetti said los Angeles, home to the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, would stage games that are both spectacular and profitable. He was given unanimous approval from his City Council to strike agreements for a 2024 bid, a move that was immediately followed by the US Olympic Committee naming los Angeles as its candidate.
"I want to thank los Angeles for standing up, once again, as America's bid city," said USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun, who stood under a summer sun at Santa Monica Beach, where the city's plan calls for staging beach volleyball on the site where the sport was founded.
The city's selection as the US nominee marks the start of a two-year competition. The IOC will pick the host city in September 2017, and Rome, Paris, Hamburg, Germany, and Budapest, Hungary, are also in pursuit of the 2024 Games.
"The focus needs to be on convincing the 55 or so IOC members that los Angeles is the best city to host the Olympics. That process starts immediately," USOC Chairman larry Probst told reporters in a conference call.