Olympics

Boston 2024 Olympic bid committee reunites as Games kick off in Paris

Friday's reunion was to celebrate, not to mourn, one Boston 2024 committee member said

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The group that pushed to bring the Olympics to Boston had a reunion Friday to watch an Opening Ceremony that could have happened in the Bay State.

As the 2024 Olympic Games officially kicked off Friday in Paris, members of the former committee that pushed for Boston to host this year's Games reunited at a local tavern to reminisce and catch up.

The Boston 2024 committee gathered at the Ford Tavern in Medford Friday afternoon for an Opening Ceremony watch party, giving members a chance to see each other nine years after Boston's Olympic bid was rose to the national forefront before ultimately being nixed.

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"A lot of folks here poured their heart and soul and effort into an effort which obviously ultimately didn't work out," former Boston 2024 CEO Rich Davey said. "But through that experience we bonded."

The Paris Olympics are here, but did you know that Boston was once in the running to host the 2024 Games? See the proposed Olympic Stadium and other venues, hear from some of the people who dreamed up the pitch and find out what ultimately caused the idea to be withdrawn.

Members brought with them stories of their time with Boston 2024, old promotional swag, and in Olympian and committee member Dan Walsh's case, an Olympic metal.

It was a celebratory gathering, not one to mourn, although the week was described as being a bit "bittersweet."

Davey is returning to Massachusetts from New York's MTA to serve as CEO for MassPort.

Watch a metal horse gallop down the Seine River to deliver the Olympic flag during the Opening Ceremony at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

"Obviously it was a big vision, one that didn't come to fruition, but one people believed in and you sort of were fighting everyday to make the case to Boston, to the state for what we thought was a bid deal," Davey said.

The big pitch at the time was a privately-funded Games, with a surplus, that would spur progress on important issues in Boston and Massachusetts, including transportation, housing and resiliency.

David Manfredi, whose firm was on the bid's master planning team, still believes the Games would have been a strong accelerant to solve some of Boston's most persistent issues. He, too, was present at Friday's reunion.

"I think one of the great things the Olympics could have done was to help us take on some of those issues in a very broad way, as opposed to project by project or block by block," Manfredi said.

Ultimately, the bid for Boston 2024 fell apart amid faltering support from the public. A grassroots opposition group formed, No Boston Olympics, with messaging that seemed to resonate with city locals. Concerns rose about transparency, potential for cost overruns and whether local infrastructure could handle a global event.

Still, this tight-knit group enjoys looking back, and considering what could have been.

"We’re huge fans of the Olympic moment," former COO of Boston 2024 Erin Murphy Rafferty said. "We’re so thrilled Paris is hosting this year and L.A. will be hosting four years from now. And no matter what, we’re champions for the Olympic movement, but maybe someday we’ll get it to Boston."

For a full look back at the Boston 2024 bid, and the opposition against it, head to our comprehensive coverage here.

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