Describing his L.A. visit as “very special” and its venues as “most impressive,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Los Angeles has a “strong team” and “shows how much you can build on an Olympic legacy,” reported the Orange County Register late Tuesday.

Bach’s trip to Los Angeles completed his tour of the four bid cities for the 2024 Olympic Games, which included Paris, Rome and Budapest. The IOC will select the host city on Sept. 15, 2017.

Bach began his Los Angeles adventure Sunday with a Lakers game and face time with local sports legends Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, leaving Staples Center with a No. 24 jersey. On Monday, Bach and his entourage headed to Westwood where they visited student housing that would be part of the Olympic Village as well as competition venues and training facilities including Pauley Pavilion, Drake Stadium and the L.A. Tennis Center.

Garcetti, in full-on pitch mode, compared Bach to Pope Francis in terms of global influence at one point. He emphasized the diverse and energetic city of today was dramatically different from the one that hosted the 1984 Olympic Games. However, he took care to emphasize it was a region still proud of its Olympic legacy and what it had to offer the Olympics in the future, with its existing world-class facilities.

“Today we had a chance to spend some time to show the political commitment of Los Angeles, the widespread support of the people of Los Angeles here in the City of Angels for the Olympics,” Garcetti said.

As he prepared to leave the UCLA campus for a reception at the Getty, Bach compared the race for the 2024 Games to a “great Olympic competition” with “one big difference – after this Olympic competition there is only one medal. There is no silver and there is no bronze, only the gold medal.”