The legendary American sprinter Allyson Felix has begged Olympic officials not to let the election of Donald Trump derail Los Angeles’ bid for the 2024 Summer Games.

Felix, the key speaker for the Los Angeles bid as it made its first public presentation to officials in Doha, came with a simple message for the 98 International Olympic Committee members who will choose between LA, Paris and Budapest next September: “Please don’t doubt us – we need the games to help make our nation better, now more than ever.”

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The presentation came a week after Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election, during which the now president-elect made derogatory comments about women, Muslims and Mexicans, mocked a disabled journalist, and appeared to cause worldwide unease on a near-daily basis.

There have also been fears among the US delegation that Trump’s remarks could have antagonised some of the IOC members, who represent a wide range of countries and cultural and religious backgrounds. But Felix, a Los Angeles-born African-American who has won six Olympic gold medals and three silvers, urged the Assembly of National Olympic Committees to look beyond his remarks.

“We just finished our presidential election and some of you may question America’s commitment to its founding principles,” Felix said. “I have one message for you: Please don’t doubt us. America’s diversity is our greatest strength.

“We’re also a nation with individuals like me, descendants of people who came to America, not of their own free will but against it. But we’re not a nation that clings to our past, no matter how glorious – or how painful. Americans rush toward the future.

“I believe LA is a perfect choice for the 2024 Games, because the face of our city reflects the face of the Olympic movement itself.”

The Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, a Democrat who was a prominent Clinton supporter, also took up the theme in his remarks to the delegates, promising his city would deliver a “transformative” games. “I see an America that remains actively engaged in the world,” he added. “I see an America that is outward-looking, ready to play its role alongside the community of nations to address our world’s most pressing challenges.”

Los Angeles, which hosted the Games in 1932 and 1984, is seeking to bring the Summer Olympics to the US for the first time since Atlanta held them in 1996. New York and Chicago failed in bids for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, respectively.

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“This is our third attempt to host the Olympic Games in the past 10 years and for many reasons ... I must say this is the most remarkable US bid I have ever seen,” the US Olympic Committee’s president, Larry Probst, said. “We have learned many lessons from our previous bids, and failure can be a great teacher.”

The Doha audience included officials from 205 national Olympic committees, dozens of international sports federations and, most important, dozens of members of the IOC, which will vote on the host city next September, in Lima, Peru.

Under tighter IOC rules, these are the first of only three presentations during the two-year bid race. The second will be at a private technical briefing for IOC members in Switzerland in July, and the third will be the final presentations on the day of the vote in Lima.