LA84 Foundation and LA 2024 partner for Festival of Books
Listen to this articleLA84 FOUNDATION AND LA 2024 PARTNER TO BRING OLYMPIANS, AUTHORS, PRIZES AND SAM THE EAGLE TO FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
LOS ANGELES (April 17, 2017) ̶ The LA84 Foundation, a legacy of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, and LA 2024 announced today that they will partner to bring Olympians, authors, prizes, and Sam the Eagle to the Festival of Books on April 22-23 at the USC Campus. The Festival of Books is free and open to the public.
“LA84’s partnership with LA 2024 at the Festival of Books is another great example of our #PlayingForward the Olympic spirit that inspires us all,” said Renata Simril, the LA84 Foundation’s President and CEO. “Most everyone knows the impact that the LA84 Foundation makes in changing the lives of youth through sports. But not everyone knows what historians, researchers, journalists and students are aware — that LA84 is also the steward of one of the largest sport heritage, Olympic memorabilia and digital sport history collections in the world. Our electronic library at la84.org had six million downloads last year, and countless articles and at least 175 books have been written using those free-of-charge archives.”
The LA84 Foundation is known as the House the Olympics Built, and for the more than three decades has maintained tight bonds with Olympians and Paralympians. Combining these bonds with LA84’s world class library and archives containing over 90,000 documents, and with the Olympians and Paralympians actively involved in the LA 2024 bid, resulted in a stellar line up of authors. Located at Booth #139, attendees can expect the following appearances:
- Julie Foudy– Two-time Olympic Gold Medal Winning Soccer Player and forthcoming author of “Choose to Matter: Being Courageously and Fabulously YOU”
- Donna De Varona– 2-Time Olympic Gold Medal Winning Swimmer and author of “More Than a Game: One Woman’s Fight for Gender Equity in sport”
- John Naber– Olympic Gold Medal Winning Swimmer and author of “Awaken the Olympian Within: Stories from America’s Greatest Olympic Motivators”
- Olga Connolly– Olympic Gold Medal Winning Discus Thrower and author of “The Rings of Destiny”
- Shirley Babashoff– 8-time Olympic Medal Winning Swimmer and coauthor of “Making Waves: My Journey to Winning Olympic Gold and Defeating the East German Doping Program”
- Gary Visconti– Former Olympic Figure Skater and author of “Falling For The Win”
- Cindy Whitehead– Author of “It’s Not about Pretty: A Book about Radical Skater Girls”
- Molly Schiot– Author of “Game Changers: The Unsung Heroines of Sports History”
- George Hirthler– Author of “The Idealist: The story of Baron Pierre de Coubertin”
- David Davis– Author of “One Golden Moment: The 1984 Olympics Through the Photographic Lens of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner”
- Chris Epting– Coauthor of “Making Waves: My Journey to Winning Olympic Gold and Defeating the East German Doping Program”
- Sam the Eagle– Beloved mascot of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games
LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman said: “On behalf of LA 2024, we are proud to join the LA84 Foundation at the Festival of Books. The festival-like atmosphere on USC’s campus will be a preview of the excitement that the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games would bring to our community. That’s why we at LA 2024 are so passionate about bringing the Games back to LA for a third time – the Games have the power to bring our city together and inspire the next generation. I’d like to extend a special thanks to the Angelenos who will bring their Olympic spirit to the event, and we hope to have the honor of standing alongside you to warmly welcome the world to the City of Angels in 2024.”
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About the LA84 Foundation
As a legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games, the LA84 Foundation continues to be a nationally recognized leader in support of youth sport programs and elevating the importance of sports in positive youth development. With 30 years of on the ground experience, LA84 seeks to provide an opportunity for every child to participate in sports and experience the wide range of positive outcomes associated with youth sport participation. Since its launch in 1985, LA84 has invested millions in the communities that supported the Games, reaching more than 3 million youth throughout Southern California, from Santa Barbara to San Diego County. The LA84 Foundation continues to promote the spirit of the 1984 Olympic Games by convening and engaging local, national and international audiences about the role of sport in society, and the impact of the Olympic Games on host cities, especially as we look ahead to the 2024 Games. LA84’s headquarters is located in the historic Britt House near downtown Los Angeles, where it houses meeting facilities and the world’s premier sports library. For more information, please visit www.la84.org, like the official Facebook page, follow @LA84Foundation on Twitter and Instagram, or subscribe on YouTube.
About LA 2024
In September 2015, the United States Olympic Committee selected Los Angeles as the American candidate city in hopes of bringing the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games back to US for the first time in 28 years. Harnessing the city’s creativity, innovation and diversity, LA 2024 is ready to welcome the world and connect the Games to the next generation. And with LA’s wealth of existing world-class stadiums, Olympic Village and infrastructure, the City of Angels can offer the most sustainable, fiscally responsible and minimum risk Games in history. LA 2024 invites the world to “Follow the Sun” to a new Games for a new era in 2024. For more information, visit www.la24.org.
