Switzerland's Patrick Baumann said Monday he was both honoured and sad at taking over as head of the IOC commission monitoring candidates for the 2024 Olympic Games following the resignation of Frankie Fredericks.
Namibian sprinting great Fredericks stepped down last week after becoming embroiled in a corruption scandal related to the awarding of the 2016 Games to Rio.
"I'm honoured on the one hand and sad on the other because the circumstances aren't what we would have wanted," Baumann, 49, told AFP.
Baumann, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member since 2007 and general secretary of the International Basketball Federation, was appointed last Tuesday amid a probe into money Fredericks accepted from a sports marketing chief accused of corruption.
Fredericks, 49, strongly denied any wrongdoing in accepting nearly $300,000 (283,000 euros) around the time that Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Olympics.
Los Angeles and Paris are the only two cities remaining in the race for the 2024 Games.
"I'm lucky to see a little closer a race between two cities who are magnificent and who have everything necessary to make the Games," added Baumann, on the sidelines of a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) symposium in Lausanne.
The IOC evaluation team will visit Los Angeles on May 10-12 and Paris on May 14-16 with the winning city announced in September in Lima.
AFP