After Tom Cruise plunged into the Stade de France on Sunday, Paris officially handed over the Olympics to the Hollywood state of California. Here’s all you need to know about the next Games in Los Angeles 2028:
Sports
For the first time since 1900, cricket will be played at the Games in its T20 format. Lacrosse is also making a comeback after more than a century. A new format will be introduced in 2028 with teams of six, rather than 10. The traditional US fanbase is also catered for too, with the return of baseball for men and softball for women after it was omitted in Paris in 2024. Sports making debuts at the Games include squash, after years of campaigning; flag football, a non-contact version of American football with smaller teams; and a new Paralympic discipline, paraclimbing.
Surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing, recently introduced to the Games, will also continue alongside the core sports, but breaking, which debuted at Paris, is dropped.
The biggest uncertainty over the coming years will be around boxing, which descended further into crisis following the gender row in Paris. The International Olympic Committee has not included the sport on the LA 2028 program yet and has urged national boxing federations to create a new global boxing body or risk missing out. More than 50 Olympic and Paralympic sports will be contested across more than 800 events.
Venues
LA joins Paris and London as a three-time host city, but the plan is to follow the French capital’s example in using as much existing infrastructure as possible. The Coliseum, which previously hosted in 1932 and 1984, and the brand new SoFi Stadium, a 70,200-seater home of the NFL’s Rams and Chargers, will be the most prominently used venues. Other existing sites earmarked for use include LA Galaxy’s football home. Long Beach waterfront will also be a popular draw for some of the outdoor water-based sports. SoFi Stadium, in the suburb of Inglewood, will be converted to host the swimming races, with a resplendent pool added. Basketball will take over the new Intuit Dome arena opening this month; and events will be held in the San Fernando Valley for the first time with the BMX, skateboarding and archery competitions. The athletes’ village, meanwhile, will be based in student housing at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).