What we know about LA 2028: no cars and base 360 miles away
following the gender row in Paris. The International Olympic Committee has not yet included the sport in the LA 2028 programme and has urged national federations to create a new global boxing body or risk missing out.
More than 50 Olympic and Paralympic sports will be contested across 800-plus events.
Los Angeles joins Paris and London as a three-time host city, and the plan is to follow the French capital’s example in using as much existing infrastructure as possible.
The Coliseum, which hosted in 1932 and 1984, and the new Sofi Stadium, a 70,200-seat 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 has been promising a “car-free” Games since it won the bid in 2017. Plans for a major rail upgrade have been shelved and organisers are now plotting to flood the city with buses to ferry people around a relatively large footprint of venues.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass insisted on Saturday that the Games could go carless. “We’re already working to create jobs by expanding our public transportation system in order for us to have a no-car Games,” she said. “And that’s a feat for Los Angeles, as we’ve always been in love with our cars. We’re working to ensure that we can build a greener Los Angeles.”
Public transport will be the only way to access Olympic venues. Bass plans to use 3,000 buses borrowed from other US cities, and to ask businesses to allow their employees to work from home during the
Keely Hodgkinson, who won gold in the women’s 800metres in Paris, will be 26 and her coaching team believe she has world-record times in her sights over the coming years. Sky Brown, twice an Olympic bronze medallist, will be only 20 by 2028 and is tipped to win big either on a skateboard or in surfing. We can also expect France’s Leon Marchand, 22, to again take the pool by storm, having secured four golds in Paris.
Noah Lyles, the 100m champion, will see LA 2028 as his crowning moment as he attempts to emulate US compatriot Carl Lewis by retaining the Olympic title.
Overall, for Team GB there is a changing of the guard. Some of their best Olympians − Adam Peaty, Max Whitlock and Helen Glover − have all signalled that they will not be back, while Tom Daley has confirmed his retirement.
The most recent budget forecasts predict expenditure of £5.5billion. Such estimates come with a pinch of salt. London 2012 cost £8.77billion − more than 3½ times the original budget of £2.4billion − although there was a lot more work required than in Los Angeles.
The 1984 Games was one of the few in history to turn a profit, but some local groups are pessimistic that LA 2028 can be so financially viable.
Nolympics LA, a group formed in 2017, points out that every Olympic host city since 1960 has spent more than planned, often leaving them with the bill for cost overruns. “We will try to mitigate whatever harm comes as a result of this bid, such as displacement, destruction and no accountability,” said Steven Louis, an organiser with Nolympics LA. “We believe there can be a movement to get LA out of this.”
However, Los Angeles tourism chiefs insist costs will be worthwhile, pointing out sports now generate 10 per cent of the world’s expenditure on tourism, with an estimated growth rate of 17.5 per cent in recent years.