ABSTRACT
Los Angeles is, from its own vantage, the Olympic city. No city has bid more frequently or more furiously for the Olympics. No city has made the Olympics as central to its core identity. The Olympics have left a more powerful legacy in Los Angeles than in any other city they have visited since 1896. Conversely, Los Angeles has, according to its own chroniclers, left a more powerful legacy for the Olympic movement than any other modern host. According to its own local histories, Los Angeles has twice saved the Olympic movement from fiscal disaster and cultural decay. [1] Even scholars concede the significance of Los Angeles to the modern games. Los Angeles provided in 1932 the original blueprint for transforming the Olympics into one of the globe's most important events. Five decades later in 1984, Los Angeles revitalized the Olympics and provided a new template to keep the games relevant into the twenty-first century. [2]
