Blackmun revealed that USOC is right behind the Oregon city's attempt to stage the showpiece athletics event five years from now and believes the US' chances of landing the biggest event of all - the Olympic and Paralympic Games - can only benefit from staging more international Championships across all sports.

"One of our [aims] over the last three or four years now is to become a more active and engaged participant in the worldwide Olympic Movement," said Blackmun, speaking at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the USOC Board of Directors in Chicago.

"Not only in the context of attending events but actually hosting events.

"The IAAF bid is an important part of that and we would very much like to assist [Eugene] and USA Track and Field to bring the Championships to Eugene.

"We think it would very much help to grow the sport of track and field in the United States.

"We are very, very supportive of that."

Eugene is known as "Track Town USA" due to its close links to athletics and it hosted the IAAF World Junior Championships in July.

The proposed venue for the 2019 Championships is Hayward Field, home of the University of Oregon's track and field team, and has regularly staged the US Olympic Trials, including for Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

Eugene hosted the IAAF World Junior Championships in July ©Getty Images



However, Doha in Qatar is seen as the strong favourite to land the Championships in 2019 after narrowly losing out to London for the 2017 edition.

Barcelona in Spain is the other candidate after all three cities submitted their Candidature Files to the IAAF by Thursday's (September 25) deadline.

The IAAF is due to choose the host city at a meeting in November.

Despite being the most successful nation in Athletics World Championship history - winning a total of 300 medals including 138 gold - the US has never staged the event since it was first launched in 1983.

The last summer Olympic and Paralympic Games held in the US was Atlanta 1996 and Blackmun reiterated USOC's commitment to bringing the event back for the first time in 28 years in 2024.

In June Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. were whittled down from an initial list of around 35 cities as potential candidates for 2024 following a 16-month process.

Of the four cities still being considered, Los Angeles is the only one with previous experience of hosting the Games, in 1932 and 1984.

Last month, representatives from the four cities met at USOC headquarters in Colorado for "a bid city briefing" as the process of selection continues.

USOC executives have already visited each of the four cities for "further collaborative discussions regarding the technical elements required to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games".

Any decision on whether to bid for the 2024 Games will be made early next year by the USOC, after the Olympic Agenda 2020 meeting in Monaco in December.

"We are right in the middle of our evaluation process," said Blackmun.

"We have four fantastic cities, each of whom we think would do a fantastic job of hosting the Games and creating a great experience for everybody.

"We have laid out a timeline for them in terms of deliverables and all four cities have remained on schedule.

"We fully anticipate that they will stay in the process through to the end of this year.

"We wouldn't be doing this unless we really wanted to bring the Games back to the United States."

If the US launches a successful bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it will have been 28 years since Atlanta hosted the event ©Bongarts/Getty Images



New York City launched an unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, eventually awarded to London, while a bid launched by Chicago for the next edition in 2016 also failed as Rio de Janeiro won the contest.

No US city bid for the 2020 Games, which went to Tokyo following the International Olympic Committee Session in Buenos Aires last year.

Any bid from the United States will likely be up against strong European bids from the likes of Rome, Paris and Istanbul, who are considering entering the race.

The IOC is set to name the host city for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games at its Session in 2017.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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