LOS ANGELES: US Olympic officials reaffirmed Boston as America’s 2024 Summer Olympics bid candidate despite more opposition than support from area citizens, hopeful a revamped plan from organisers will win public support.

US Olympic Committee (USOC) chief executive Scott Blackmun and USOC chairman Larry Probst said on Tuesday after a quarterly USOC board meeting that they have not spoken with any other losing finalist as a back-up plan ahead of September’s deadline to submit bids to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“We’re focused exclusively on Boston,” Blackmun said. “We haven’t had conversations with Los Angeles, Washington or San Francisco. Boston is our partner.”

But Boston 2024 is a partner under siege with opponents polling greater support than backers of the project. Americans nationwide back the idea of hosting the Summer Olympics for the first time since Atlanta in 1996, but that support vanishes at the notion of having the Olympics staged near them.

“We obviously want to see a positive trend and the sooner the better,” said Bla­c­k­mun, citing Boston support numbers in the low to mid 40-per cent range.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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