Update: According to the Mayor’s office, “The Mayor had not yet reviewed those remarks (as noted in the email) and he did not use them when he spoke with the USOC.”
Before they won endorsement from the United States Olympic Committee to become the U.S. bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, Boston 2024 had to make their pitch like the three other cities involved (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C.) As part of the pitch to the USOC, Boston chose its mayor, Marty Walsh, to speak on behalf of the city he represents.
The exact words that Mayor Walsh used were not released to the public, until very recently. Thanks to a public records request from Bay State Examiner reporter Andrew Quemere, we finally have at least a draft of Walsh’s speech to the members of the USOC during the December pitch before the group’s decision to select Boston.
Not overly long, the draft of Walsh’s address communicated to the USOC his personal belief that not only is he connected to the city that he grew up in (and is now mayor of), but that the Olympics could be a goal for the city to aspire to along its journey to a greater vision for 2030. That’s the date Walsh has set for when, among other things, the mayor identified a massive new housing goal for Boston.
The point of contention for skeptics will surely be the passage when Walsh claimed to the USOC that “believe me when I tell you, we don’t have real opposition in Boston.” Even in December, it was notable how Boston was arguably the only of the four U.S. bids to have organized opposition.
Here’s the full text of the draft of the speech:
Image via @USOlympic
