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Schwarzenegger throws weight behind LA Olympic bidDate: 19.01.2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United States
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threw his star power on Friday behind a bid by Los Angeles to host the 2016 Olympics, saying he would "do anything" to land the Summer Games for his adopted hometown.
Flanked by former Olympic athletes beneath the main arch of the Los Angeles Coliseum, the site of two previous Olympics, the former action-movie star said the state had united behind a bid to be submitted on Monday to the U.S. Olympic Committee.
"I don't think that we have a specific program yet laid out of what I need to do but as I made it clear, whatever it is, I will do anything, I will fly anywhere," said Schwarzenegger, who was on crutches from a December skiing accident.
"I think this is of great interest to California. I think we deserve to have the games here," he told a rally of regional government and Olympics officials.
The U.S. Olympic Committee announced last week it would bid to host the 2016 games in either Los Angeles or Chicago. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games. The latter games generated an operating surplus of $235 million.
In November, San Francisco withdrew its bid for the Summer Games after the city's professional football team said it would not build a new stadium that would have been a centerpiece of the bid.
Each city has three months to make its pitch before the USOC announces its pick on April 14. The deadline for the USOC to put its nomination before the International Olympic Committee is Sept. 15.
The winning city will be announced by the IOC in October 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Schwarzenegger, a seven-time Mr. Olympia bodybuilding champion, acknowledged Los Angeles faced stiff competition internationally but said the city had "an unbelievable advantage, because we have the facilities."
The Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games has proposed housing athletes at an "Olympic Village" on the University of California, Los Angeles campus, and media, Olympics officials and other dignitaries at the University of Southern California campus near downtown.
Italy, India, Japan, Brazil, Spain and Azerbaijan have also expressed an interest in staging the 2016 Olympics. The United States has not hosted the Summer Games since Atlanta in 1996.
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