Summary of the Los Angeles bid for the designation of United States Applicant City to the International Olympic Committee to be Host City for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Introduction The International Olympic Committee (IOC) tells us that Pierre de Coubertin’s “definition of Olympism had four principles that were far from a simple sports competition: To be a religion i.e. to ‘adhere to an ideal of a higher life, to strive for perfection’; to represent an elite ‘whose origins are completely egalitarian’ and at the same time ‘chivalry’ with its moral qualities; to create a truce ‘a four-yearly festival of the springtime of mankind’; and to glorify beauty by the ‘involvement of the philosophic arts in the Games.’” Los Angeles proposes to take the Games back to these fundamental principles. The Games in the 21st Century can have more in common with de Coubertin’s original vision of the Olympic Games as a set of ideas and ideals than with the construction project they became in the 20th Century. The Games must have meaning as “software,” not as “hardware.” The most significant impact they can have is on the minds, bodies and souls of people everywhere, rather than on the fleeting urban plan of the Host City. The Games here will bow to the ideals of the past and glimpse the dreams of the future. Los Angeles and all of California are uniquely able to deliver de Coubertin’s dream. California represents to people all over the globe the qualities that people have always admired most in America – the qualities they still admire in America. While other parts of our nation may bring to mind America’s financial power and America’s military power, California, and especially Southern California, speak to people about personal freedom, creativity, optimism, and individual opportunity. Here, we have no class distinctions, no patterns to follow. The only limits are those of our own making. People come here from everywhere to reach their goals, just as Olympians compete to reach their goals. Our sunshine and our palm trees have become symbolic of dreams realized for millions of people.
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