2028 Summer Olympics

The 2028 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, and commonly known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA28, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from July 14–30, 2028, in and around Los Angeles, California, United States.

Los Angeles had originally bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. However, after multiple withdrawals that left only Los Angeles and Paris in contention, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved a process to concurrently award the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics to the two remaining candidates; Paris displayed a preference for the 2024 Games, and Los Angeles agreed to host in 2028. Both of the bids were praised for high technical plans and innovative ways to use a record-breaking number of existing and temporary facilities. Los Angeles was formally awarded the Games at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru, on September 13, 2017. They will mark the fifth Summer Olympics (first since Atlanta 1996), and ninth Olympics overall, to be hosted by the United States. Having previously hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984, Los Angeles will become the third three-time host city after London (1908, 1948, 2012) and Paris (1900, 1924, 2024), and the first city in a North American country ever to do so.

After debuting in 2020 as optional events, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing have been promoted to the Summer Olympics' "core" event program. Boxing, modern pentathlon, and weightlifting had been provisionally removed due to governance issues; modern pentathlon and weightlifting were later reinstated following reform efforts, with the former expected to employ a new format replacing show jumping with obstacle course racing, while the decision on boxing was postponed. The 2028 Games will feature the debut of flag football and squash as optional sports, joined by the return of baseball/softball, cricket (for the first time since 1900) and lacrosse (for the first time since 1908).

Bidding process
On September 16, 2015, the International Olympic Committee announced the candidature process and the five candidate cities for the 2024 Games: Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Paris, and Rome. Budapest, Hamburg, and Rome eventually withdrew, leaving only Los Angeles and Paris. A similar situation had already occurred during the bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics when Kraków, Lviv, Oslo, and Stockholm withdrew, resulting in a two-way decision between Beijing, China, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, with Beijing ultimately declared the winner. On April 3, 2017, at the IOC convention in Denmark, Olympic officials met with bid committees from Los Angeles and Paris to discuss the possibility of naming two winners in the competition to host the 2024 Summer Games.

After these withdrawals, the IOC Executive Board met in Lausanne, Switzerland, on June 9, 2017, to discuss the 2024 and 2028 bid processes. The IOC formally proposed electing the 2024 and 2028 host cities at the same time in 2017, a proposal that an Extraordinary IOC Session approved on July 11, 2017, in Lausanne. The IOC set up a process where the Los Angeles and Paris 2024 bid committees and the IOC held meetings in July 2017 to decide which city would host in each of the two years.

Following the decision to award the 2024 and 2028 Games simultaneously, Paris was understood to be preferred for the 2024 Games to mark the centennial of the 1924 Summer Olympics. On July 31, 2017, the IOC announced Los Angeles as the sole candidate for 2028, with $1.8 billion of additional funding from the IOC, allowing Paris to be confirmed as the host for 2024. On August 11, 2017, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to approve the bid. On September 11, 2017, Los Angeles received formal approval from the IOC's evaluation commission. On September 13, 2017, Los Angeles was formally awarded the 2028 Games following a unanimous vote by the IOC. The IOC praised the LA bid for using a record-breaking number of existing and temporary facilities and for relying entirely on corporate funding.

On October 16, 2017, Los Angeles 2028 received official endorsement from the state of California. On August 29, 2018, Olympic officials arrived for a two-day visit that included meetings with local organizers and a tour of the city's newest venues. At the time, LMU and LA Times polls stated that more than 88% of Angelenos were in favor of the city hosting the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In March 2023, a poll conducted by Suffolk University and the LA Times indicated 57% of Angelenos believed the Olympics would be good for the city compared to 20% who think it would have a negative impact.

Venues and infrastructure
Like the 1984 Summer Olympics, the 2028 Summer Olympics will be hosted in a majority of venues around Greater Los Angeles. The city's bid relied on a majority of existing venues and venues that had already been under construction or were planned regardless of the Games. The majority of venues are divided into clusters known as "sports parks", situated in Downtown Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, Carson (at California State University, Dominguez Hills), and Long Beach. No new permanent venues are being built specifically for the Games. Like the 1984 Summer Games the Olympic Village will be situated on the UCLA campus, while USC will be the Media Village.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Bowl will host athletics and football (soccer), respectively. Both will become the first stadiums to have ever hosted three different Olympiads. Crypto.com Arena will host gymnastics, and Intuit Dome will host basketball. BMO Stadium, which opened in 2018 as the home of Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC, will host the soccer finals. SoFi Stadium, which opened in 2020 as the home of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, will host swimming events. Riviera Country Club will host golf.

The Coliseum underwent a major renovation and restoration program from 2017 to 2019. A new press box, loge boxes, and club seats were installed. Crypto.com Arena is also undergoing renovations which will be completed by 2024. The NBA's Los Angeles Clippers broke ground on a new arena in Inglewood—Intuit Dome—in 2021, which is expected to be completed in time for the 2024–25 NBA season; in January 2024, it was announced that the arena would also host basketball during the Games.

In 2022, the Knight Riders Group and American Cricket Enterprises announced plans for a new cricket pitch at Orange County Great Park in Irvine; while intended primarily for the Los Angeles Knight Riders of Major League Cricket, it was considered to be a potential venue for the then-proposed cricket competitions during the Olympics.

In January 2017, it was reported that the bid committee had proposed holding the opening and closing ceremonies at both SoFi Stadium and the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in an acknowledgement of its role in the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. The plans called the final leg of the torch relay to be ceremonially launched from the Coliseum, a simulcast of the opening ceremony proper at SoFi Stadium for those in attendance, and the ceremonial re-lighting of the historic Olympic cauldron at the stadium once the cauldron is lit in Inglewood. The closing ceremony would be held in reverse, with opening segments at SoFi Stadium, and the official protocol held at the Coliseum.

To reduce costs and use more pre-existing facilities, LA28 announced changes to its venue plans in June 2024. The temporary aquatics center that was scheduled to be built at USC's Dedeaux Field was scrapped, in favor of holding swimming at SoFi Stadium, artistic swimming in Long Beach, and diving at the historic Los Angeles Swim Stadium (which was built for the 1932 Games). With a planned configuration for 38,000 spectators, SoFi Stadium will be the largest swimming venue in Olympic history. Equestrian was moved to Temecula, California, while softball and canoe slalom were moved to existing venues in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, instead of building new venues for both events in Los Angeles County.

Transportation
The Twenty-eight by '28 initiative is an effort by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) complete 28 transit infrastructure projects before the start of the Games. Most of these projects and initiatives were already in the planning stages during the bid, but will receive accelerated priority, while several minor new projects were programmed with the initiative.

The K Line opened to revenue service on October 7, 2022, after multiple delays from a planned opening in 2019. It links the Crenshaw District, Inglewood and Westchester. The K Line will also connect to a people mover being constructed since early 2018 to link Los Angeles International Airport with the LAX/Metro Transit Center station, with opening anticipated in 2024. The Inglewood Transit Connector is another people mover planned to provide transportation between the K line and the Olympic venues in Inglewood.

While various infrastructure improvements were planned regardless of the outcome of the Los Angeles Olympic bid, the extension of the Metro D Line will be expedited to serve the Olympics. Three phases were created to extend the line. The first phase will extend the D Line from the Wilshire/Western station to the new Wilshire/La Cienega station. This phase will be completed by 2025. The second phase will extend the D Line to Century City by 2026, while the third and final phase will extend the line to the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center in Westwood with a completion date set for 2027. The third phase will also include a station adjoining the UCLA campus, connecting Olympic Village and Pauley Pavilion with venues in downtown Los Angeles. Construction began in 2014 and remains on schedule.

The Regional Connector in downtown Los Angeles was completed in 2023. The project connected the Metro E Line, which already links venues in downtown Santa Monica to venues at Exposition Park and in downtown Los Angeles, to the southern half of the former Metro L Line. This allows for direct rail service between Santa Monica and East Los Angeles. The Regional Connector also linked the Metro A Line with the northern half of the Metro L Line, connecting the Long Beach area and San Gabriel Valley via downtown. Also, the under construction San Dimas station on the A Line extension will service Bonelli Park, home of mountain bike events.

These infrastructure improvements, among others, are being funded by Measure R, a temporary half-cent sales tax increase, and Measure M, a continuation of Measure R's tax increase plus an additional permanent half-cent sales tax increase, both tax measures applicable to Los Angeles County. Measure R was approved by voters in November 2008 and Measure M was approved by voters in November 2016. Both tax measures are unrelated to the Olympics and passed by voters prior to the Olympic Games being awarded.

Bus Fleet
LA28 organizers estimate Los Angeles will need an extra 2,700 bus fleet to move spectators and athletes during events, doubling Metro's current fleet. The organizers anticipate LA Metro to meet the demand and stated they support Metro in their transportation infrastructure development plans. Metro reports it would take an estimated $700 million to $1 billion dollars to cover the cost. Through the Vision 2028 plan, they are applying for federal grants and identifying other nationwide agencies in need of new fleet buses after the games to streamline re-sale.

Budget
In April 2019, the estimated cost of the Games was assessed as being approximately $6.88 billion with all the money coming from the private sector. The organizers adjusted the budget for inflation after LA, which originally bid for the 2024 Games, agreed to wait four more years.

The City of Los Angeles is the lead public guarantor, committing to spend up to $250 million to cover shortfalls. In 2016, the California legislature took action so that the Governor is empowered to negotiate the next $250 million in public backup, but only after the city backup money has been used first. LA 2024 also agreed to purchase a wide range of insurance policies to cover financial relief in the event of natural disaster, terrorism, event cancellation, as well as reduced ticket sales. The Games are expected to generate as much as they cost, with $2.5 billion coming in through sponsorships and nearly $2 billion earned through ticket sales. Average ticket prices for the Games will range between $13 and $457 (in 2016 dollars).

The federal government will designate the Olympics a National Special Security Event (NSSE) in which the U.S. Secret Service heads a single chain of command. The U.S. federal government will also cover the cost of security, with an agreement signed by the LA organizing committee and Department of Homeland Security in February 2020, but it will not be involved in the Games' funding, covering only the aforementioned security costs.

Sports
The program of the 2028 Summer Olympics is expected to include events in at least 35 sports, including 27 of the "core" Olympic sports contested since 2016. These Games will introduce changes to the program of core Olympic sports, including the permanent addition of skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing after having been featured as optional sports in 2020 and 2024. These sports were intended by the IOC to replace boxing, modern pentathlon, and weightlifting, which had all been placed under provisional status due to governance issues. Modern pentathlon and weightlifting were later reinstated, but boxing remains under provisional status until further notice due to unresolved concerns. The Los Angeles 2028 Organizing Committee proposed five optional sports: baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash. They were approved by the IOC in October 2023 as part of their policy of introducing Games-specific sports to maximize local interest and growth.

Of the 16 new disciplines proposed by existing Olympic sports, beach sprint rowing was the only one to be accepted by the IOC. It will replace the lightweight double sculls category, and consist of individual events for men and women as well as a mixed double sculls event. Modern pentathlon is expected to employ a new format which replaces show jumping with obstacle course racing.

New sports
Since 2020, the program of the Summer Olympics has consisted of mandatory "core" sports that persist between Games, and up to six optional sports proposed by the organizing committee in order to improve local interest, provided that the total number of participants does not exceed 10,500 athletes.

On December 9, 2021, the IOC executive board proposed that skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing, which all successfully debuted as optional sports at the 2020 Summer Olympics and will return in the same capacity in 2024, be promoted to the core program of the 2028 Summer Olympics to replace boxing, modern pentathlon, and weightlifting, which were provisionally dropped from the program pending the resolution of governance issues, with the IOC setting a deadline of 2023:
 * The International Boxing Association (IBA) has faced ongoing governance issues, which resulted in boxing at the 2020 Summer Olympics being overseen by an external task force. These concerns increased following the election of Umar Kremlev as its president in December 2020, due to his extensive ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, and his appointment of state-owned oil and gas company Gazprom as the organization's sole sponsor. A competing governing body known as World Boxing was established in April 2023 by a consortium of national federations, and the IOC voted to strip the IBA of its status as recognized governing body for boxing in June 2023: this marked the first time a governing body has been expelled from the Olympic movement.
 * The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) faced issues with doping and governance, resulting in weightlifting being considered "provisional" for the 2024 Summer Olympics. In 2022, the IWF elected Mohammed Hasan Jalood as its new president, and he oversaw reforms to the organization, including agreeing to delegate its drug testing to the International Testing Agency and to participate in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
 * The Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) was seeking approval for its proposed replacement of show jumping in the modern pentathlon with obstacle course racing. < These efforts were mainly caused by an infamous event in the women's modern pentathlon at the 2020 Tokyo Games, which saw German team coach Kim Raisner hit a horse that did not follow the instructions of jockey Annika Schleu. Her actions drew criticism, and the UIPM promptly disqualified her from the rest of the Olympics.

In August 2022, the LA Organizing Committee shortlisted nine proposed sports for consideration as optional events for these Olympics: baseball/softball, breakdance, cricket, flag football, karate, kickboxing, lacrosse, squash, and motorsport.

On October 9, 2023, the Organizing Committee announced that they had officially submitted baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash for consideration by the IOC. The five sports were approved at the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai, India.

In addition, the IOC reinstated modern pentathlon and weightlifting for the core program, citing that the sports' governing bodies had made sufficient efforts in carrying out reforms. The IOC withheld a decision on boxing due to the IBA's expulsion and insufficient reach by World Boxing.

Schedule
In order to facilitate use of SoFi Stadium for both the opening ceremonies and swimming, the scheduling of swimming and athletics events will be reversed in comparison to their traditional Olympic scheduling. Track and field will take place during the first week of the Games instead, during which the stadium will be reconfigured to uncover the pool in preparation for swimming competition during the second week.

Emblem
On September 1, 2020, the LA28 OCOG unveiled the emblem for the 2028 Summer Olympics, featuring the characters "LA" and "28" in a stacked layout. The "A" in "LA" is designed to be interchangeable, with variations created in collaboration with athletes, artists, designers, celebrities, and other figures (such as musician Billie Eilish, comedian Lilly Singh, and actress Reese Witherspoon). There is also the main variation derived from the "Stars in Motion" emblem of the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Organizing committee chairman Casey Wasserman explained that the multitude of variations was intended to "showcase our community's collective creativity and celebrate the diversity that makes us strong", as the city "defies a singular identity." Chief marketing officer Amy Gleeson stated that the emblem was designed to "foster a deeper connection with the audience who will be in their 20s and 30s when the games happen." The final version of the "A" is scheduled to be presented during the handover ceremonies during the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremonies.

On March 23, 2024, American Delta Air Lines Airbus A350 aircraft was spotted in the special LA28 livery at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in Blagnac, France.

Broadcasting rights
In the United States, the Games will be broadcast by NBCUniversal properties, as part of a long-term contract with the IOC through 2032. The Universal Studios Lot is planned to be the site of the International Broadcast Centre for the Games. In addition, NBCUniversal and the Organizing Committee will coordinate numerous sponsorship sales for the Games, and parent company Comcast will be promoted as a founding partner of Los Angeles 2028 as part of a renewed sponsorship agreement with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC).

On January 16, 2023, the IOC renewed its European pay television and streaming rights agreements with Warner Bros. Discovery through 2032, covering 49 European territories. The IOC concurrently reached a deal for free-to-air coverage with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), whose member broadcasters will carry at least 200 hours of coverage of the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Candidature files

 * Stage 1: Vision, Games Concept and Strategy
 * Stage 2: Governance, Legal and Venue Funding
 * Budget released Dec. 2nd, 2016
 * Stage 3: Games Delivery, Experience, and Venue Legacy
 * Sustainability Vision