IOC hasn’t had formal contact with Trump administration about LA28

When Kirsty Coventry was elected as the International Olympic Committee’s first woman president last March the former Olympic swimming champion admitted the IOC faced “a number of difficult challenges” and acknowledged that one of them was “Donald Trump.”

Meeting with President Trump early in her presidency would be a “priority,” she said.

Coventry, however, acknowledged on Wednesday that in the 10 months since her election the IOC has yet to establish formal contact with the Trump administration about the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

Although President Trump was in Davos, Switzerland this week, less than 250 miles from the IOC’s Lausanne headquarters, Coventry said she had no plans to meet with Trump but looked forward to meeting with Vice President J.D. Vance at the Winter Olympics next month in Milan Cortina. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also be attending the Winter Games.

“As it pertains to the USA, we have not had formal communication just yet with the White House,” Coventry said during a conference call with reporters. “We have seen the formal announcement of president Trump’s team. We look forward to meeting the vice-president.”

Coventry expressed similar sentiments on the day of her election when asked about the Trump administration impacting the 2028 Games.

“When it comes to the USA and LA, I have been dealing with difficult men since I was 20 years old,” Coventry said, “and first and foremost what I have learned is communication will be the key. That is something that will happen early on and my firm belief is that Donald Trump is a huge lover of sport. He will want these Games to be significant, want them to be a success and we will not waver from our values and our values of ensuring every athlete that qualifies for the Olympic Games has the possibility to attend the Olympic Games and be safe.”

But since then Trump has repeatedly threatened to move the Games out of Los Angeles or to deploy federal troops to Los Angeles during the Games.

Coventry’s admission Wednesday comes amid rising concerns of Los Angeles City Council members and other state and local officials about the Trump administration’s role and influence on the planning and conducting of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously earlier this month to request that officials for LA28, the Games’ local organizing committee, provide a detail presentation of the role the federal Olympic task force will have on the planning and implementation of the Games.

The request, Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez said was necessary to protect from “overreach” by the federal government related to the Games.

“Given that we’re going to be hosting the world, I think it’s increasingly important for us to get a greater insight and transparency from LA28” on role of the “federal task force that is now being tied to the planning of these Games,” Rodriguez said. “But more importantly because (in) everything preceding this moment, we were assured, particularly the chief of police … that our local law enforcement would the leader in … the engagement and activities of law enforcement with these Games. And so I want to make sure that we have every assurance and contractual protection that’s in fact remains the case.”

Trump signed an executive order in August establishing a federal task force on the Olympic for the Los Angeles Games. Similar task forces have been established for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, as well as for next summer’s World Cup.

But Trump’s repeated threats to move the Games and World Cup matches out of Los Angeles and other blue state cities, as well as threats to deploy military or National Guard troops to the city during the Olympics, have heightened concerns about the role of the task force in the planning and implementation of the Games among state and local officials.

“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military,” Trump said during the August 5 ceremony.

Trump will serve as chairman of both the Olympic and World Cup task forces.

During the August ceremony, which was attended by LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman and Gene Sykes, the USOPC chairman and an IOC member, Trump also referred to Mayor Karen Bass as “not very competent.”

Trump went further in speaking with reporters in October.

“If I thought LA was not going to be prepared properly, I would move it to another location,” Trump said. “(California governor) Gavin Newsom, he’s got to get his act together.”

Trump cannot legally remove the Olympic Games from Los Angeles, but the administration’s control over federal funding and visas could be used as leverage against Olympic and World Cup organizers to extract concessions that could threaten the integrity and success of the global events, according to current and former IOC members and Los Angeles city and county officials, and contracts and other documents related to the Olympics and World Cup.

“The White House Task Force on the 2028 Games plays an important role in facilitating coordination across federal departments and agencies, providing the federal support needed for the Games,” LA28 said in a statement to the SCNG. “For LA28, this Task Force represents an important planning milestone and reinforces the federal government’s commitment to working with the City and LA28 to deliver a safe and successful Games.”

But concerns about Trump and his allies were further heightened when a number Trump associates were added to the LA28 board, including Reince Priebus, the former Republican National Committee chair and Trump’s first chief of staff in his first term, Kevin McCarthy, the former Speaker of the House, leading Trump donor Diane Hendricks, and Ken Moelis, Trump’s banker in the 1990s.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Coventry’s counterpart at soccer’s global governing body, has taken a different approach to Trump.

Infantino’s courtship of Trump has led several publications to describe it as a “Bromance.”

Infantino was invited to Trump’s inauguration ceremony. In turn the FIFA president invited Trump to hand out medals to the winning players at the summer’s FIFA World Club Cup final. FIFA opened an office in Trump Tower in New York City over the summer. FIFA also switched December’s World Cup draw from the Sphere in Las Vegas to the Kennedy Center in Washington, during which Infantino awarded Trump with a FIFA peace prize that Infantino had created for the U.S. president who has made his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize no secret.

He has met with Trump at least nine times since January, five times in the Oval Office, according to White House records“He has got his FIFA World Cup in just a couple of months, so if we weren’t seeing that good relationship (with Trump) I’d be a little worried,” Coventry said of Infantino. “Hopefully as we get closer to the (Los Angeles) games we will see relations continue and — as they have been with the IOC, with the Olympics movement in the United States — only getting stronger.”