A good day for the Olympics: Mr. Bach goes to the White House

A good day for the Olympics: Mr. Bach goes to the White House

You can like Donald Trump. You can not like Donald Trump. To be clear: I did not vote for the gentleman. Whatever. When the president of the United States of America meets with the president of the International Olympic Committee at the White House, that is a good day for the Olympic movement.

Let us all understand the gravity of what happened Thursday. Put emotion aside. Think strategically. What is in the best interest of the Olympic movement, and of the IOC? Answer: having good relations with the governments of the world. Russia is a great country and a great Olympic power. China is a great country and a great Olympic power. But, people, let’s be real.

Once again, the Olympic disconnect

Once again, the Olympic disconnect

Do you want to know why nine cities have dropped out of the running for the 2022, 2024 and 2026 races for the Olympic Games?

Why only Los Angeles and Paris are left for 2024 and the International Olympic Committee is all but certain this summer to award both the 2024 and 2028 Games to those two, order yet to be determined?

Because the 2016 Rio Games are just the latest super-expensive Olympics and because the IOC, in attempting to explain billions in spending tied to an Olympic Games, issues a statement that’s filled with inconsistencies and double-speak.

Now let's see if IOC can get 2024/2028 right

Now let's see if IOC can get 2024/2028 right

Last September, I became the very first person on Planet Earth to propose publicly that the International Olympic Committee award the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games at a single stroke. On Friday, the IOC’s policy-making executive board took me up on my suggestion.

Now let’s see, despite indications to the contrary, whether the IOC can get the order right.

At issue is way more than the 2024 and 2028 Games. At stake is the direction, if not the very future, of the Olympic movement in the 21st century.

Thought leadership: making Mandela's words real

Thought leadership: making Mandela's words real

It was of course Nelson Mandela who told us all something so simple, so eloquent and so powerful.

“Sport,” he said, “has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to inspire to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair …”

Last weekend, a car-and-knife rampage on London Bridge left eight people dead and dozens injured. Afterward, political, governmental and faith leaders issued calls for solidarity and resolve amid this latest act of terrorism in western Europe.

If a track meet happens in the forest, does it make a sound?

If a track meet happens in the forest, does it make a sound?

The 43rd edition of the Prefontaine Classic went down over the weekend at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Pre is purportedly the leading professional track meet in the United States, the only American stop of the year on the world track and field tour, what is now called the Diamond League.

Eugene, for those who have never been, is surrounded by foothills and forests — literally, forests — to the south, east and west. Thus this philosophical question: if a track meet happens in the forest but it barely makes a sound anywhere else, then — what?

How is Paris bid like The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

How is Paris bid like The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

PARIS — Taking in the sight of the new French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Tuesday hosting the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission along with the Paris 2024 bid team, you could almost hear the soundtrack playing from the 1975 cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

Let’s do the time warp again, people.

It’s like the Paris 2024 people think it’s 2005 and they are having a group therapy session over the loss to London for 2012 and re-playing the things their predecessors did wrong and trying, 12 years later, to make it right.

What did de Coubertin know for 2024?

What did de Coubertin know for 2024?

PARIS — Welcome, members of the International Olympic Committee evaluation commission and, incidentally, jackals of the press following behind at a respectful distance and, please, do keep it respectful. This is where it all began, on June 23, 1894, the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin proclaiming to a gathering of swells, “I … lift my glass to the Olympic idea, which has traversed the mists of the ages like an all-powerful ray of sunlight and returned to illumine the threshold of the 20th century with a gleam of joyous hope.”

Here we are in 2017, and the IOC has its backside in a bind. The baron, more than a century ago, could have predicted this very thing.

Who's got next, Mme. Hidalgo?

Who's got next, Mme. Hidalgo?

Dear Mme. Hidalgo:

In American pick-up basketball, we have an expression: who’s got next?

On Sunday, Emmanuel Macron took office as French president. Surely in recent days you noticed how M. Macron was out front in expressing support to the International Olympic Committee for the Paris 2024 project. Just guessing here since you and he have had what might be described as a frosty relationship: you must have been thinking to yourself — dude, really?

What we've got here, IOC: godawful failure to communicate

What we've got here, IOC: godawful failure to communicate

A beautiful scene unfolded Thursday inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum amid the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission tour of the would-be 2024 Games venues.

It was everything that is great about the Olympics, past and present, inspiration then and now.

But because the IOC’s communications strategy is so godawful the IOC didn’t tell you about it.

This, in a nutshell, is why the IOC is facing a grave credibility crisis around the world. This, too, is why the IOC must come back to Los Angeles instead of opting for the only other choice in the 2024 race, Paris.

Real people: why LA wants 2024

Real people: why LA wants 2024

It’s a no-brainer that Los Angeles can put on the Olympics. Everyone knows that. Twice before already, and to great success, in 1932 and 1984, so 2024 — like, LA could, if pushed, be ready by Christmas. That is the obvious starting point for an International Olympic Committee “evaluation commission” team, which on Wednesday kicked off three days of putting-on-a-show inspection.

The commission will see the Coliseum, Staples Center and more, all of which exist now, meaning no permanent-venue costs. All good. But what the members won’t see is what sets Los Angeles apart from every other place in the world. They won’t see it because it’s not a see-able thing. It’s a feeling. It’s the feeling the people of Southern California have for the Olympics because the Games are deeply woven into the fabric of life in SoCal.