The group working to bring the 2024 Olympics to the D.C. area, whether you like it or not, has revealed the members of its board and an official hand sign it wants supporters to use.
In addition to Chair Russ Ramsey and Vice Chair Ted Leonsis, members of the Washington 2024 board include former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, chef José Andrés, Washington Kastles owner Mark Ein, Washington Informer publisher Denise Rolark-Barnes, Washington Mystics president Sheila Johnson and Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank.
“The leadership team and I embrace the ideal of unity embodied in the Olympic Movement, which has inspired and united people around the world through the universal language of sport,” Ramsey said in a release. “Our hope is that by bringing the Summer Olympic Games to Washington, we will foster greater unity in the Capital Region.”
Notice the use of unity twice? That’s because unity is at the center of Washington 2024’s “manifesto,” which reads in part:
Do the Olympics bring a chance to win or the opportunity to rediscover unity? To find the greatness within each of our hearts, stirred by the achievements of a few. To pull together cities, nations, peoples. To pull together all of us on the planet and to pull us forward to what is possible. Unity is the call. So let the games begin anew.
That’s why the group wants you to arrange your hands in the shape of a “U” — as in “unity” — and share the image on social media. Because #unity.
D.C. is one of four cities being considered by the United States Olympic Committee to make a bid.
Update: It’s been quickly pointed out that Washington 2024’s “unity” hand symbol is similar to the University of Miami’s “the U.”