“It’s something we’ve given a lot of thought to,” LA 2024 CEO Gene Sykes said on a conference call with reporters. “We’ve actually worked closely to get help from city and state and county officials who deal with security and we actually will take some steps that we’ll be ready to announce in the next several weeks that will reflect the kinds of things that we expect to do. It’s obviously a very high priority for us.”
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Sykes and bid chairman Casey Wasserman spent the day in New York briefing the U.S. Olympic Committee’s executive board on the progress of the effort. They were well aware, though, that terrorism fears had bubbled up again back home after the Los Angeles Unified School District decided to close Tuesday after receiving a “specific threat.”
Wasserman said he hasn’t had any indication that International Olympic Committee members are particularly wary of his city when it comes to security.
“In my connections with the members since the process started, honestly I think security is a concern for everyone in all markets,” he said, “but it hasn’t been a specific concern that any members have raised to me about Los Angeles.”
November’s deadly attacks in Paris — another 2024 hopeful — drove that point home, the latest reminder that just about any event or location can be vulnerable to violence these days.
“Everything that happens in the world affects the way we think about how we have to plan for this,” Sykes said. “I think it’s something that we’ll be ready for and give a great deal of thought to.”
