Los Angeles mayor welcomes plan for double hosting award

Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti (L) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach shake hands during the visit of the 2024 candidate city delegation of Los Angeles at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti welcomed a plan to award the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games hosting rights simultaneously as he arrived for an International Olympic Committee meeting on Monday.

Los Angeles and Paris are bidding for the 2024 Games though the IOC is widely expected on Tuesday to ratify an executive board recommendation to award both the 2024 and the 2028 Games at the same time, ensuring both candidates host one Games.

Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti (L) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach speak during the visit of the 2024 candidate city delegation of Los Angeles at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

French President Emmanuel Macron will be present at Tuesday's meeting, an unusual move as heads of state generally turn up only for the host city vote, which this year will take place in Lima, Peru in September.

"We welcome the decision to look at simultaneous awarding of two summer games," Garcetti said as he met IOC President Thomas Bach. "We are very excited even in that context to share our unique story with the IOC members, the soul of LA, the taste of the city."

Bach said that Los Angeles' previous hosting of the games, in 1932 and 1984, were a "turning point" in Olympic history.

(L-R) Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti, American sprinter Allyson Felix, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach and American sprinter Michael Johnson pose in front of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

"If the IOC session should give the green light on double allocation for 2024 and 2028, this will create a win-win-win situation for LA, Paris and the entire Olympic movement," he said.

Paris has also hosted the games twice, in 1900 and 1924.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach (R) welcomes Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti and the 2024 candidate city delegation of Los Angeles at the Olympic Museum, next to the olympic flame and the statue of Pierre de Coubertin in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; writing by Brian Homewood; editing by Mark Heinrich)

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach (C) welcomes Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti (L) from the 2024 candidate city delegation of Los Angeles during the visit of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach (R) and Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti from the 2024 candidate city delegation of Los Angeles pose in front of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach (L) and Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti from the 2024 candidate city delegation of Los Angeles are seen during the signing of the golden book at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy