Los Angeles will be hosting the Olympic Games for the third time in 2028.
At the Paris closing ceremony Sunday, LA Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag in Paris before handing it off to American actor Tom Cruise, who, after leaving the Stade de France in dramatic fashion, could be seen in a prerecorded trek via motorcycle, plane, and parachute kick off the official countdown to 2028.
Olympics Past
After Paris and London, Los Angeles will become the third city in the world to have hosted the games three times.
Los Angeles hosted its first Olympics in 1932—it was the only bidder for the games at the time, owing to the Great Depression. Despite the absence of several nations, the games saw some memorable sports moments, including American Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who won two gold medals in the newly introduced women’s events of javelin and hurdles.
The 1984 Olympic return to the city was a resounding success in terms of sports, spectacle, and financially, owing to the assistance of Tinseltown: the games opened with decathlon champion Rafer Johnson lighting the torch, a guy in a jetpack descending into the Memorial Coliseum, and John Williams, famous for his “Star Wars” score (and numerous others), composing the Olympic theme.
Dubbed the “good Olympics,” 1984 made seemingly every major world city eager to host their own and outdo the LA spectacle.
With Cold War tensions running high, the Soviet Bloc had decided to boycott the games, which allowed the United States to dominate at home: Track and field superstar Carl Lewis raked in no less than four gold medals; a young Michael Jordan led the men’s basketball team to victory; and gymnast Mary Lou Retton narrowly snatched the all-around gold medal from Romania—the only communist country to participate.
The games renewed the reputation of Los Angeles, a city that had globally been perceived to be in decline.
Olympics Future
Now history seems to be repeating itself. Businesses and residents are fleeing LA in droves, and the city faces 75,000 homeless people on its streets, along with rampant drug use and crime.
So will the coming of the Olympic Games once more succeed in reviving California’s ailing capital? Mayor Bass was optimistic.
“As we’ve seen here in Paris, the Olympics are an opportunity to make transformative change,” she said at a press conference ahead of the closing ceremony.
The Olympic Committee certainly intends to give it its best shot.
“We want our games to be a modern games, youthful, full of the optimism that Southern California brings to the world and the globe,” Janet Evans, four-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming and chief athlete officer for the LA 2028 organizing committee, told The Associated Press in Paris.
Given that the 2028 Olympic destination was decided in 2017, the city has already had considerable time to prepare. With several stadiums and arenas currently being built and upgraded, there are no plans to erect additional structures for the games.
“It’s a no-build games,” Evans said.
Here’s what we know so far:
The Los Angeles opening and closing ceremonies will be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, which will host the games’ swimming events. Planned to accommodate 38,000 spectators, it will be the largest swimming venue in Olympic history, according to the organizers.
Intuit Dome in Inglewood, the new, state-of-the-art home of the NBA’s Clippers that officially opens on Thursday, will function as the main venue for the Olympic Games.
The Lakers’ downtown Crypto.com Arena will host gymnastics.
As for transport, the city has a number of bus and rail projects in the pipeline, including an extension of a subway line to connect downtown LA with UCLA, where the Olympic Village will be located.
In 2021, plans were conceived for an automated, three-stop rail line past major Olympic venues called the Inglewood Transit Connector. However, the $2 billion project has incurred significant delays. According to a January report from the Federal Transit Administration, it is unlikely that the railway will be completed before 2030.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.