RIO DE JANEIRO _ Olympic Stadium comes alive at dusk with fans arriving for the late session, lots of chatter and laughter, everyone eager to watch Usain Bolt in a 200-meter semifinal.
Beneath the stands, in a dank concourse, Doug Arnot and Bill Hanway emerge from a meeting that ran longer than expected. It has been another tough day and they look a bit haggard in their matching purple shirts.
"This is not glamorous," Arnot says.
They are in Rio as paid consultants to help pitch Los Angeles' bid for the 2024 Summer Games.
While Mayor Eric Garcetti and sports agent Casey Wasserman serve as the face of the campaign _ schmoozing with International Olympic Committee members at cocktail receptions and private dinners _ Arnot and Hanway do the grunt work.
For the past two weeks, they have slogged through traffic and stood in hallways, waiting to meet with the international federations that govern each sport at these Summer Games.
Flipping open his ever-present tablet, Hanway runs through a presentation they have just given to track officials, swiping through pages of technical drawings and artistic renderings.
"We're the nuts-and-bolts nerds," he says.
But their work involves more than specifications and diagrams _ they must strike a measured tone in making the case that Los Angeles would be a fitting host for the Olympics.
