It's hard to believe that planning for the 2024 Summer Olympics is already underway but incredibly, that is the case. All cities must have their official bids into the United States Olympic Committee by this coming Monday. The possible hosting U.S. cities Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Boston.
Once submitted to the United States Olympic Committee, one of the four cities will be chosen and submitted to the International Olympic Committee, where it will compete against other cities from across the globe. A United States Olympics in 2024 would be a good thing, in my opinion. The United States has not hosted a Summer Olympic Games since 1996, when the event was held in Atlanta.
The cities in question are being hotly debated, and it is a topic which I have been researching and following closely. Personally, I think that Boston would be the most logical of the cities to host the games, and I am positive that a Boston Games would be well executed.
First, I do not agree with the proposal of Los Angeles at all. Not only has LA hosted the summer games twice already, but the layout of the city is not conducive to this large-scale of an event, in my opinion. Los Angeles is extremely spread out, and not welcoming to walkers, meaning that cars are a necessity. Los Angeles traffic is a nightmare as it is, and hosting the Olympics would be nearly impossible because it would bring exponential amount of more traffic. One good thing about the prospect of hosting in Los Angeles is that the city is a media and press hub, so the Olympics close by would be a great opportunity for the media in the city.
San Francisco is a beautiful city, and a viable choice for an Olympic bid in my eyes, but the one possible problem that may face the city if it were to host the games is its hilly terrain. San Francisco has so many hills that building the arena (which needs to hold 80,000) along with the athletes' village and the other facilities may be difficult.
I would love the idea of the Olympics being held in Washington, D.C.. I think that it would be exciting to showcase the nation's capital to the rest of the world, and show our national pride, but I do not think that it is the best idea for several reasons. The first is the security of the city. Millions of people flock to the Olympics every time it is held, and that sheer magnitude of people would be very difficult to keep under complete control. Inviting millions and millions of international people to the most security loaded city in America could be a huge problem and I feel would cause panic due to the threat of attack, etc because it is hard to know exactly what will happen when there are that many people in the same (very important) area. D.C. is also a very small city. I am not sure that it would be the most ideal place to hold the games due to the size of it and how packed with buildings it already is, I think that it may be challenging to find places to construct the new facilities needed for the games. The last reason I do not think Washington D.C. would be the best spot for the Olympics is the fact that Ronald Reagan Airport is not an international airport. How can a city expect to invite millions from all over the world if the airport that services that city does not accept international flights?
Finally, I think that Boston would be the best place out of the four cities to hold the 2024 Summer Olympic games (and not just because it is my home- city). Boston would be a good hosting city because it can clearly deal very well with and recover from high level security breaches (as demonstrated by the marathon bombings), and the police force has learned from that experience so they will have tactics to ensure it does not happen again. The city has a large international airport within it, and many smaller satellite cities surrounding it in which to build the proper facilities. Boston has many colleges and universities, so some of the events could be held in the school facilities (Harvard has already offered their field), or built and used at the cost of the school, (MIT has proposed building a fencing stadium which could be used during the games, and then used by the fencing team after they are over). Boston is also a good option because the buildings constructed specifically for the Olympics would not go to waste as they did in Sochi. The 80,000 capacity arena could be condensed and then used to house the Revolution, the New England soccer team which does not currently have its own field to play on). Similarly, the athletes' village could house the athletes and then be used as dorms for the University of Massachusetts Boston, which is in the city and is currently a commuter school because they have no dorms for students to live in.
There are many reasons that I believe that Boston would be the best option for the U.S. 2024 Olympic bid, but only time will tell which of the cities gets chosen to represent the country.
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