PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2015 U.S. OLYMPIC ACADEMY Olympic City Lifecycle: From Bid to Legacy April 30, 2015 Los Angeles, California Copyright © 2015 by the U. S. Olympic Committee Opening/Welcome 2015 3 COBI JONES, Olympian, Soccer U.S. Olympic Academy The theme of the 2015 Academy is “The Olympic City Lifecycle: From Bid to Legacy.” Cobi Jones COBI JONES: G ood morning and welcome to the 2015 US Olympic Academy at the LA84 Foundation. My name is Cobi Jones. I was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team in soccer. It’s my honor to be your master of ceremonies today. Thank you. The Olympic Academy is a forum to exchange ideas about the Olympic movement and explore the principles of Olympism. The theme of the 2015 Academy is “The Olympic City Lifecycle: From Bid to Legacy.” This is a relevant and timely topic for the U.S. Olympic Academy. The United States has hosted Olympic Summer and Winter Games in six different cities since 1904 and Boston now is vying to host the 2024 Olympic Games. Today we have an outstanding lineup of sports leaders, Olympians, Paralympians from around the country who will tell us what they know about the lifecycle of an Olympic city. We hope and expect there will be active audience involvement throughout the day. The final session will be an audience-wide discussion in which you will have the opportunity to offer your own thoughts on the topic. As you can see, there are cameras in the room in the back. Today’s conference will be streamed on the USOC website and then archived at TeamUSA.com. You all have the agenda. We are going to try to stay on schedule. I’ll be pushing you a little bit on that to stay on schedule, and we hope you’ll join us at the end of the day for food and drinks in the courtyard. Today I want to say from a personal point this has been a pleasure for me to be asked to come up here and to host. We are going to hear first off from George Hirthler, our keynote speaker. His bio is in your information packet so I’ll simply say Mr. Hirthler has a wealth of experience in the Olympic movement. He’s been a communications strategist for 10 Olympic bid cities and a consultant to numerous international sports organizations. So thank you once again. If you could give a hand to George Hirthler … Keynote Address 2015 4 GEORGE HIRT HLER, CEO, Hirthler & Partners U.S. Olympic Academy It is time to resurrect Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s story and all its glory to help the world understand the real power and potential of the vision he birthed and the legacy he left. George Hirthler George Hirthler: Thank you so much, Cobi. Of course the question everyone always asks me is, “Who’s It really is a great honor for me to be here. I’ve never been at going to win this race? Who’s going to win this race?” And, LA84, but I’ve been on your website about 1,000 times and of course, that question is always impossible to answer. If I’ve downloaded probably more PDFs than my current laptop there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last 26 years of working can hold. I love this place and I’m staying an extra day because in this game it is you need the gifts of a biblical prophet, I want to see the library that I’ve read so much and heard so a biblical prophet, to basically predict the outcome of an much about. L.A. got its legacy right. Salt Lake City got its Olympic bid, just like any sporting event. This is especially legacy right. Lake Placid got its legacy right and surprisingly, evident in the American South where I live, where the line Atlanta got its legacy more than right as you’ll hear today. between college football and religion is nearly invisible. Auburn University once had a great football coach by the But let me begin by saying I once heard the great Peter name of Shug Jordan. And Shug was rebuking reporters who Ueberroth. On the way to the podium he said two serious were predicting another loss to his archrival Bear Bryant at questions entered my mind, “Why did they ask me to speak? Alabama. And, Shug Jordan said this, “Never forget boys that And why did I say yes?” I know why I’m here. In addition Goliath was a 40-point underdog – he was a 40-point – oops to the 10 Olympic bid campaigns I’ve worked on I have – that Goliath was a 40-point favorite over David before the competed against 45 Olympic bid cities, which means I’ve fight got started.” learned an awful lot about the bid process. I will venture to share some insights and observations on both the bid process, Before I dive into the subject at hand, I’d like to take a why cities win, why bids fail as well as the legacies that the commercial break. Anyone who knows me knows that for Olympic Games leave behind. the last three point five years I’ve been working on a historical novel about Baron Pierre de Coubertin. His legacy is known, admired and followed by billions of people around the world, but his name has been lost in the folds of time. If you Google Click to play the 10 most influential people of the 19th century, this is what PowerPoint presentation you get. [PowerPoint slide] They are all great people; there’s no question about that. But I’m one who believes that Coubertin belongs if not on this list certainly near the top of it. The work of Pierre de Coubertin continues to resonate in more Keynote Address 2015 5 GEORGE HIRT HLER, CEO, Hirthler & Partners U.S. Olympic Academy and more powerful ways today. The Olympic movement he the greatest challenges for Olympic cities throughout their launched is still growing and expanding its influence across the lifecycles, as we shall see. cultural landscape of our world fulfilling in so many ways the dream that he launched of uniting our world in friendship and Now, let’s turn to the Olympic city lifecycle from bidding peace through sport. to legacy. Back in 1988 when Billy Payne hired me to write Atlanta’s Olympic bid there was a succinct observation that At the turn of the millennium, when the lists of the most still carries some truth today. People used to say, “There influential people of the last 2,000 years were published, are only two pure amateurs in the Olympic movement, the Coubertin’s name was absent. When that list was compressed horses who are in the equestrian events and all the teams to the last 100 years, his name was still missing. He does from the Olympic bid cities.” Of course that’s what makes appear on the top 50 people of biographies list of famous the bid process so exciting. Some members of the team are French citizens, but basically he is one of history’s greatest on a literal road of discovery from beginning to end and it’s forgotten heroes. Without his vision, determination and one of the most complex courses in the world of sport. As talents or the family fortune he exhausted launching the the great John Furlong, who led Vancouver 2010 bid and Olympic Games, it is highly unlikely that the Olympic Games Games, once said, “An Olympic bid is like a moon shot. If would exist as we know them today and it’s even more unlikely your calibrations are off by a 100th of a degree, you miss your that we would even be in this room having this discussion at target by 10,000 miles.” this Olympic Academy. It is true that you have to establish a brand foundation for And that’s why in the recommendations I sent to Thomas your bid and build the bid narrative, the brand narrative, all Bach as a part of my contribution for Agenda 2020 – I’m the way through to the bid presentation, but anybody familiar sure many of you made contributions – I put an emphasis on with lunar missions or Olympic bid campaigns knows there Coubertin’s story and the need for dramatic storytelling. Let is a good number of course corrections that have to be made me read you what I sent to him: “Imagine trying to tell the in route. So here’s another quote from John Coates, who led story of the Civil Rights Movement without the heroic story Sydney 2000 to victory, that provides a telling bookend, “In of Martin Luther King, Jr. or conveying the drama of anti- Olympic bidding the last six months are critical. The last six apartheid’s triumph in South Africa without the narrative weeks are desperation. The last six days are everything and the of Nelson Mandela. Biography is one of the most enduring, last six hours are life and death.” If you don’t believe that, talk fascinating and memorable genres of literature and yet the to the guys who ran the Paris bid right after the decision was Olympic movement barely plays lip service to the genius of made in 2012. sport who started it all. It is time to resurrect Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s story and all its glory to help the world understand What all this suggests is that it’s completely impossible to the real power and potential of the vision he birthed and the predict the outcome of Olympic bid race until that Olympic legacy he left.” envelope is opened.