LOS ANGELES (AP) — The International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission concluded a three-day visit Thursday to review selected venues and track progress in organizing the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
“There are only four years left,” warned Casey Wasserman, president and CEO of LA28, who recalled that there are 1,338 days until the opening of the Games, on July 14, 2028.
The commission visited the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, the Long Beach Convention Center, as well as the waterfront and Marine Stadium during its first tour of Los Angeles in two years.
“The locations are absolutely spectacular,” said Nicole Hoevertsz, member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the Coordination Commission for LA28. “I’m going to highlight this every time I come to town: they don’t have to build anything, they have world-class places. “They know very well how to organize big events, including sporting events.”
In 2025, the Games plan will be fully defined, including the venues and competition calendar, the medal event program and the athlete quota, which in turn will drive transportation, security and ticket sales plans.
In 2026, the Los Angeles organizing committee will “get into some of the fun stuff,” Wasserman said, including opening ticketing and hospitality options to the public, organizing the torch relay, creating a mascot, planning the Cultural Olympiad and the volunteer program.
“We are eager to welcome the world,” he said during a press conference on the UCLA campus, which will house the Olympic Village.
Wasserman doesn’t anticipate any problems working with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who was in office in 2017 when Los Angeles won the host bid and signed federally binding documents for the government to provide security and transportation. for the Games.
“Our conversations with the federal government always involve talking to people of all parties, that is the nature of the world we live in and of this country,” Wasserman said. “One side cannot dictate everything. It requires cooperation and coordination. “We have had great success under Republican and Democratic administrations, and we have no doubt that will continue.”
Wasserman and the Los Angeles organizing committee visited Paris to get an up-close look at how the French capital hosted the recent Summer Games.
“We spent most of our time hanging around the back of the house while the competition was going on,” he said. “That’s where we learned a lot and saw a lot. I think we have quite a handle on producing an event on the playing field. What makes the Olympic Games unique is everything else.”
Cricket is among the new sports at the 2028 Games, as are flag football, lacrosse and squash. There is currently no place to play cricket in Los Angeles.
“If we can find a place for cricket in Los Angeles or in the region, we will do it,” he said. “If not, it is up to us to find the best place to produce the best cricket tournament.”
Softball and boating slalom will be contested 2,000 kilometers east of Los Angeles in Oklahoma City.
“These Games are incredibly focused on Los Angeles and Southern California and being responsible and making hosting the Games fit our city and our community rather than tailoring our city to host the games,” Wasserman said . “That 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 in the future.”
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
