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Boston sees advantage over Los Angeles in 2024 Olympic bidding race

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With the clock ticking down on a potential American bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Boston officials believe they have an edge over the competition -- including Los Angeles.

The U.S. Olympic Committee is expected to choose a candidate -- or decide to forgo a bid -- early next year. San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have joined Boston and L.A. as contenders.

In a Boston Globe story, officials from that city talked about offering a compact array of venues that no other American candidate could manage.

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“The city is the Olympic park,” Dan O’Connell, president of the Boston 2024 Partnership, was quoted as saying. “It becomes a public-transit and walking Olympics.”

Boston could make use of the Commons, Franklin Park and Harvard University, which O’Connell characterized as iconic sites “that other cities won’t have.”

By contrast, a Los Angeles bid would feature venues spread across various parts of Southern California stretching south to Long Beach. A renovated Coliseum would serve as the centerpiece and an athletes village could be constructed just east of downtown.

Washington and San Francisco would also spread the Games across a wide swath.

Officials in Boston conceded that, with their venues so tightly grouped, traffic could be a challenge. They are continuing to study the feasibility of holding the Olympics.

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