L.A.’s Olympic bid gets help from Vice President Joe Biden

Los Angeles’ campaign to host the 2024 Summer Games got an unexpected boost Friday at an international sports conference in Washington.

Vice President Joe Biden made an unscheduled appearance at the Association of National Olympic Committees event, giving a short talk during the morning session.

“I’m not here lobbying for any city, although I do love Los Angeles,” Biden told the ballroom.

The audience included numerous International Olympic Committee members who will select a host for 2024 in two years. While they hesitated to single out any candidate city — Paris; Rome; Hamburg, Germany; and Budapest, Hungary also are in the running — Biden’s speech appeared to impress.

“I thought it was a great bonus for everybody,” said Patrick Hickey, an IOC member and ANOC senior vice president. “And he gave a great speech.

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“In Europe, when they have a congress like this, it’s invariably opened by the president of the country or the prime minister,” Hickey said. “It had been obvious that nobody from the administration had showed up except the mayor of Washington.”

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti received much of the credit, having suggested the visit during a breakfast with Biden earlier in the week.

Garcetti and LA24 Chairman Casey Wasserman have been in the nation’s capital all week, introducing themselves to the hundreds of ANOC and IOC delegates. The conference will continue through Saturday.

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