Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Los Angeles 2028 Olympics organizers said Thursday the Games will not be impacted by President Donald Trump’s ban on citizens from 12 countries from visiting the United States. Casey Wasserman, chairman of LA28, the 2028 Olympics organizing committee, told a press conference that the US government had made it “very clear” that Trump’s travel directive would not apply to the Games.
Trump’s travel directive announced late Wednesday bars all travel to the United States by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Wasserman said, however, he was confident that all athletes and members of the Olympic movement would be free to travel to the United States in 2028. “It was very clear in the directive that the Olympics require special consideration, and I actually want to thank the federal government for recognizing that,” Wasserman said following the conclusion of a visit from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission.
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Wasserman said the broad constituency of the Olympic movement — from athletes to federation officials and media — would not be affected by the ban. “All the constituents that you know so well that come to the city pre-Games and during the Games — it’s very clear that the federal government understands that that’s an environment that they will be accommodating and provide for,” Wasserman said. “So we have great confidence that that will only continue. It has been the case to date, and it will certainly be the case going forward through the Games.”
Wasserman’s bullish appraisal was echoed by Nicole Hoevertsz, the chairwoman of the IOC Coordination Commission. “We as the IOC have every confidence in the fact that the local authorities and the federal authorities understand that bringing the Games to your country is a big responsibility,” Hoevertsz said. “It is 206 countries that are preparing to come to the Games …and the federal government has given us that guarantee in the past as well, to make sure that these participants will be able to enter the country. That is something that we will be definitely looking at and making sure that it is guaranteed as well …we are very confident that this is going to be accomplished.”
© 2024 AFP
