GENEVA — Olympic leaders are “very confident and relaxed” about working with the incoming Trump administration ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games, outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach said Thursday.
President-elect Donald Trump has talked up his own role helping get the games for L.A. in 2017, though a White House meeting during that campaign with an Olympic delegation including Bach was not a success.
Still, the two men could meet again as soon as Saturday in Paris, which hosted the 2024 Olympics that L.A. originally bid for.
Trump is traveling to the French capital for ceremonies this weekend to reopen Notre Dame Cathedral that was devastated by fire five years ago.
Bach also is invited to return to the Olympic host city where he has excellent relations with French President Emmanuel Macron, who formally opened the Summer Games on July 26.
President Trump should do the same duty at the L.A. Olympics opening ceremony on July 14, 2028 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Though the L.A. Olympics are privately funded and organized, federal government guarantees and funding are needed for security, as well as providing visas to ensure athletes, coaches and officials from 206 national teams, plus a refugees team, can enter the U.S. to train and compete.
Bach said Thursday responsibility for “taking early contact with the incoming team” of the Trump administration is with organizing committee officials in LA, and leaders of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC).
“We are very confident there with regard to the steps and efforts being undertaken,” Bach said at a news conference after an executive board meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland. “We saw also that President-elect Trump repeatedly declared his support for the games, which we never had any doubt because he has declared this support from the very beginning.”
On Wednesday, Trump said he appointed Monica Crowley as his representative for “major U.S. hosted events,” including the L.A. Olympics and the 2026 World Cup in men’s soccer.
Trump will be invited as head of state by FIFA to present the trophy to the winning captain at the World Cup final. That game is on July 19, 2026 at MetLife Stadium near New York City.
“The World Cup and the Olympics, I was responsible for getting both of them, actually,” Trump told Bill Belichick on the “Let’s Go!” podcast before the Nov. 5 election.
The U.S. will co-host soccer’s biggest event with Canada and Mexico, having beaten the rival bid of Morocco in a June 2018 vote in Moscow by FIFA member federations.
Trump has had a warmer relationship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who twice visited the White House in the first administration. They also co-headlined at Davos, Switzerland, in January 2020 in an event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
On Thursday, Trump’s video message to FIFA, expressing his “highest regards and respect to Gianni,” was broadcast at the soccer body’s draw ceremony in Miami for the 2025 Club World Cup. It was attended by Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.
IOC says five billion followed Paris Olympics
The IOC said its commissioned research showed five billion people — 84% of the potential global audience aged over four years old — followed the Paris Olympics.
“These Olympic Games met the expectations of the world,” Bach said.
The IOC’s “Audience and Insights” report used data gathered by research firms Nielsen, Ipsos and Publicis Sport & Entertainment, and said more than 55,000 people aged from 13 to 65 in 18 countries were surveyed.
In France, the report claimed 95% of the potential audience watched on average 24 hours of coverage.
Among the athletes surveyed, 95% rated their Olympic experience as good or satisfactory.
Revenues rising
The IOC reported total revenue of $7.6 billion from the 2021-24 Olympic cycle that included the 2022 Beijing Winter Games and 2024 Paris Summer Games.
For the 2025-28 period, covering the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Games and 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games, the IOC already secured $7.3 billion and expects to beat the previous total, Bach said.
The IOC uses most of its income from broadcast and sponsor deals to make billion-dollar payments toward Olympic hosts’ costs, pay shares to sports’ governing bodies and national Olympic committees, plus training scholarships for hundreds of athletes in less wealthy countries.
Dunbar writes for the Associated Press.