We’ll admit to nursing a little bit of an Olympic hangover these past couple of days. This post on X, formerly Twitter, by @stokaljona on Sunday may have put it best: “Can’t believe that tomorrow we’re meant to wake up and there will be no Olympics all day. How can this possibly be acceptable.”
We wish there were best-in-competition matchups day, so we’re eagerly waiting for the Paris Paralympics to kick off on August 28—and we’re also looking even farther ahead to the Olympic Games. The 2028 Summer Games will be particularly exciting, since they’ll be held on home turf: The 2028 Olympics are Los Angeles–bound! Here’s what we currently know about what’s in store for when the Olympics return to the West Coast.
You can mark your calendars now—the dates are decided.
Go ahead and put in your vacation request: The 2028 Olympics will be held July 14 to 30, and the Paralympics, August 15 to 27.
The 2028 Games will mark the third time Los Angeles has hosted.
The Games have been held in the Southern California city twice before: in 1932 and 1984. That latter year, by the way, marked the first time the women’s marathon was included in Olympic programming; before then, officials thought the distance was too mentally and physically grueling for women. An American runner, Joan Benoit Samuelson, took gold, so the location would be particularly poignant for Team USA women to repeat the feat for the first time.
There are some familiar names on the board of directors for it.
In addition to the types of people you’d expect to guide such an effort—for example, Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee—we spy some other notables on the LA 2028 Board. That includes swimmer Katie Ledecky, Paralympic medalist Lex Gillette, and actor Jessica Alba.
There will be two brand-new Olympic sports and one Paralympic one—plus four you didn’t see this year are returning.
For the first time ever, flag football and squash will be contested at the Olympic level. Flag football will be played with teams of five on a 50-yard field (that’s less than half the length of an NFL field).
Baseball and softball will also return. Both have been part of the Olympics before, most recently in Tokyo. Cricket, which was last played in the Paris Olympics in 1900, and lacrosse, which was part of the Games in 1904 and 1908, will both make a comeback.
On the Paralympic side, LA is adding one new sport to the existing 22: para-climbing. This marks the first-ever time an organizing committee has added a sport to the Paralympic program.
But at least one Olympic event coming back.
Sorry, breaking fans: The sport, which only debuted at the Olympics in Paris, isn’t going to be part of the LA28 program. And currently, boxing is in question, because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) doesn’t recognize the International Boxing Association as a legit governing body.
There’s one big switch to the schedule.
Typically, swimming events occur the first week of the Olympics and track and field (or athletics, in Olympic parlance), the second. But in Los Angeles, this order will be reversed, with runners competing before swimmers.
The events will be held in existing venues.
Some host cities build lots of brand-new sporting arenas for Olympic competition. But in an ongoing push to make the Games more environmentally friendly—not to mention, less expensive—the LA28 events will take place in stadiums, arenas, and other facilities that are already standing.
