Could Hamilton Host Equestrian Events for 2024 Olympics?

State leaders are pushing to have Boston submit a bid to host the Olympics next decade, so would Hamilton be up for hosting the equestrian events?

The town hosts one of the only “eventing” courses in the area and is renowned for its equestrian culture.

The state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would create a nine-person commission to examine the possibility of Boston hosting the summer Olympics in 2024, including looking at “ all aspects of hosting the games, including infrastructure, transportation, security, lodging, locations, costs, and job creation,” according to an Associated Press report in the Boston Herald.

Groton House Farm on Highland Street, where the eventing course is located, would likely not be the best location for an Olympic venue, according to Ann Getchell, who runs the facility.

“I think it would be impossible to do something like that in a community like Hamilton,” she said.

At one time, Groton House hosted higher-level events and “we had courses that would have been adequate for the Olympics but we couldn’t manage the people.”

Hannah Banks of Newton helped locate a site for equestrian events the last time Boston sought to host the Olympics.

“It’s a lovely piece of property,” she said about Groton House Farm, but reached the conclusion that the site needed better access. Constructing a new course on the Devens property, in Ayer and Shirley, would make more sense, she said.

“It has all sorts of highway access and commuter rail,” she said.

The course for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 was built from scratch in Conyers, an Atlanta suburb, she said.

“I don’t know if it helps to have existing jumps,” she said, noting the existing course does not meet Olympics requirements and does not have the required number of obstacles.

Banks said she has not been involved in the current effort but may get involved at some point.

“It’s an exciting process,” she said.

She’s not sure whether the previous location identified at Devens is still available. Getchell said that Pease International Tradeport, outside Portsmouth, N.H. and near I-95, had been also mentioned as a possible site where a course could be constructed.