Los Angeles is on the clock for 2028 Olympics with focus turning to delivery and planning next year

AP Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission wrapped up a three-day visit Thursday to check out selected venues and track the progress of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“We’re four short years away,” said Casey Wasserman, LA28 chairman and president, who noted the Los Angeles Games are 1,338 days from opening on July 14, 2028.

The commission visited the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, the Long Beach Convention Center, waterfront and Marine Stadium during its first trip to Los Angeles in two years.

“The venues are absolutely spectacular,” said Nicole Hoevertsz, a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the Coordination Commission for LA28. “I’m going to highlight this every single time that I come to the city that you have no construction to do, that you have world-class venues. They know very well how to organize big events and big sporting events.”

In 2025, the Games plan, the venues and competition schedule, medal event program and athlete quota will be finalized, which in turn will drive transportation, security and ticketing plans.

In 2026, the LA organizing committee will “get into some of the fun stuff,” Wasserman said, which includes opening up ticketing and hospitality options to the public, organizing the torch relay, creating a mascot, Cultural Olympiad and volunteer program.

“We cannot wait to host the world,” he said during a news conference on the campus of UCLA, which will host the athletes’ village.

Wasserman doesn’t anticipate any issues working with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who was in office in 2017 when Los Angeles won its bid to host and signed federally binding documents for the government to deliver security and transportation for the Games.

“Our conversations with the federal government always involve talking to folks from every party, that’s the nature of the world we live in in this country,” Wasserman said. “One side doesn’t get to dictate everything. It requires cooperation and coordination. We’ve had great success with both Republican and Democratic administrations, and we have no doubt that will continue.”

Wasserman and the LA organizing committee visited Paris to get an up-close view of how the French capital staged the recent Summer Games.

“We spent most of our time touring the back of the house while the competition was going on,” he said. “That’s where we will learn a lot and see a lot. Producing an event on the field of play I think we have a pretty good handle on. What makes the Olympics unique is everything else.”

Cricket is among the new sports at the 2028 Games, as are flag football, lacrosse and squash. A cricket venue doesn’t currently exist in Los Angeles.

“If we can find a place for cricket in Los Angeles, in the region, we will,” he said. “If not, it’s incumbent upon us to find the best place to produce the best cricket tournament.”

Softball and canoe slalom have already been moved 1,300 miles east to Oklahoma City.

“These Games are incredibly focused on LA and Southern California and being responsible and making hosting the Games fit our city and our community as opposed to fitting our city to host the games,” Wasserman said, “which is the mistake that has been made in the past and the promise we have made to the city and the community not to make going forward.”

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AP Paris Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games