Mexico Olympic Committee President wants to revive joint Tijuana-San Diego Olympic bid for 2024

insidethegames.biz
Wednesday, 17 December 2014

By Duncan Mackay

 


Mexico is trying to revive a joint bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics between Tijuana and San Diego, although its hopes appear set to be dashed by the United States.  







Carlos Padilla, President of the Mexican Olympic Committee (COM), revealed during the organisation's General Assembly today that he hoped to hold talks with United States Olympic Committee (USOC) officials early next month.

The idea of a joint bid had originally been mooted last year when the USOC began seeking expressions of interest for a 2024 Olympic bid.

But it was ruled out because at the time the Olympic Charter did not allow for joint bids for the Summer Games.

That rule has now been scrapped with the adoption of Agenda 2020 at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Monte Carlo last week.

"With these modifications we now see a joint bid between the cities of Tijuana and San Diego as a feasible project," said Padilla at the General Assembly in Mexico City. 

The two cities, which share a 15 mile border, are closely linked economically.

San Diego–Tijuana is an international metropolitan conurbation, straddling the border of the adjacent North American coastal cities of San Diego, California, United States and Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. 

The population of nearly five million makes it the largest bi-national conurbation shared between the United States and Mexico and the fourth largest in the world.

Californian city San Diego and Mexico's Tijuana share a 15-mile border and are closely linked economically ©Getty Images

Padilla added that he hoped to meet with USOC chairman Larry Probst "to discuss the idea".

But his hopes of persuading the USOC to back the initiative appear very slim.

The USOC last night formally committed to bidding for the 2024 Olympics and its Board heard presentations from Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

Probst claimed they would back a "single-city" bid and hoped to make an announcement in January.

This stance was confirmed today by Patrick Sandusky, chief communications and public affairs officer at the USOC.

"We are not considering a joint bid at this time," he told insidethegames.

Earlier this year a political sports commission had been set-up to investigate the feasibility of an Olympic bid from Guadalajara but ruled that it would not be viable.

Mexico gives scholarships to students in San Diego

 fox5sandiego.com
 by Christian De La Rosa

SAN DIEGO — Tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships were handed out Tuesday in San Diego and it’s not tax-payer money, nor is it private money.

Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto gave out $45,000 in scholarships to 160 students of Mexican descent living in San Diego, who are in tough spot.


Alejandra Garcia was brought to the U.S. illegally by her family when she was a young girl.  When she turned 18 years old, her family decided to go back to Mexico – she stayed behind to finish school.

Garcia’s undocumented status makes scholarship options slim to none, so her share of the scholarship money, about $600, will be put to good use.

“My books for my last semester,” said the Southwestern College sophomore.

The scholarship money will also help some of San Diego’s adult education programs that help people like Francisca Hernandez Nuñez, a 47-year-old mother of four who cleans houses for a living in Vista and recently graduated from the sixth grade.

“I am now learning in English,” Nuñez added.

The scholarship program, IME Becas, has been around for 5 years and has made over $5 million in scholarships available to 34,000 students across the United States.