With just over three years until Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, the event’s venue lineup is here.
LA28, the Games’ organizing committee, released the nearly-complete roster this week, after it was approved by the International Olympic Committee.
The committee has long touted this as a “no-build Olympics,” meaning the host cities are not constructing arenas or stadiums just for the Games.
“The great thing about Los Angeles is when you look at what we have, there’s no reason to build,” says Janet Evans, chief athlete officer for LA28. “We have some of the best and greatest venues and stadiums in the entire world.”
About half the sporting events will be held in the City of LA and clustered in three major hubs – Downtown, near USC, and the Sepulveda Basin in the San Fernando Valley.
Olympic medalist and LA28’s chief athlete officer Janet Evans helped bid for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and is now planning the Games. Courtesy of Getty Images for LA28.
Downtown
Altogether, Downtown LA will host 15 sporting events.
Artistic gymnastics and boxing will be held at the Crypto.com Arena. Weightlifting heads to the Peacock Theater. Meanwhile, the Convention Center secured wrestling, judo, table tennis, Taekwondo, fencing, artistic swimming, shooting, water polo, and handball.
Plus, Dodger Stadium will host baseball. Evans says Chavez Ravine also held the sport during the city’s 1984 Olympics. “But baseball was only an exhibition sport then, so this is a full medal event coming back to Dodger Stadium.”
While it's a few miles from Downtown, squash will make its Olympic debut at the Universal Studios lot. “We’re doing it in Courthouse Square, right where they’ve filmed literally thousands of movies,” says Evans.
Near USC
The LA Memorial Coliseum, the historic venue that was built for the city’s 1932 Olympics, gets track and field. The pool at the park was also used during those Games and will host diving in 2028.
“The Coliseum, along with the Rose Bowl [Stadium], are the only stadiums in history to be used three times at three different Olympic Games,” says Evans.
The Galen Center will host badminton, and flag football will make its Olympic debut in 2028 at the BMO Stadium.
Sepulveda Basin
While LA has Olympic history dotted throughout the city, the 2028 Games will be the first to host events in the San Fernando Valley.
The Sepulveda Basin secured 3x3 basketball, modern pentathlon, skateboarding, BMX freestyle, and BMX racing.
Other Southern California cities
The other half of the Games’ events will head to other cities in LA and Orange Counties.
“We do have other venue cities like Carson, Inglewood, Long Beach, and Pasadena,” says Evans. “They also have world-class venues we couldn’t ignore, like SoFi Stadium and the Rose Bowl.”
After the City of LA, Long Beach will be the second-busiest venue city with 11 events. Mostly staged along the beachfront, Long Beach secured coastal rowing, target shooting in its Convention Center, sport climbing, water polo, artistic swimming, and beach volleyball, among others.
In Inglewood, 5x5 basketball will be played inside the recently opened Intuit Dome. Next door, a pool will be built inside SoFi Stadium for swimming.
The VELO Sports Center in Carson will host track cycling, just as it did in 1984. Plus, archery, field hockey, rugby, and tennis will all head to Carson.
Pomona’s fairgrounds secured cricket, which hasn’t been played at an Olympic Games since 1900.
There are only two sports – canoe slalom and softball – that are heading out of state. Both will be held in Oklahoma City.
The “biggest stakeholder”
As chief athlete officer and an Olympic swimmer herself, Evans says she is using her role to plan the Games with the athletes top of mind.
“Obviously, athletes are the biggest stakeholder,” she says. “So it’s incumbent on us to give them the greatest opportunity they can have to compete at their best.”
Evans is a five-time Olympic medalist and a Southern California native. She represented Team USA in three Games: Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, and Atlanta 1996.
While deciding the venue roster, Evans says LA28 considered the logistics of playing the sport at each venue, including transportation, food, and what a day-to-day schedule might look like for the athlete.
“I still see myself as an athlete as we’re planning these Games because I’ve lived it,” she says. “When those athletes get into our region, all of that will be ready for them.”