What to know about the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles: venues, sports and dates

The 2024 Paris Olympics are now officially behind us.

The Games wrapped up on Sunday night with the Closing Ceremony at the Stade de France, ending what was Paris’ first summer Olympics in 100 years.

So naturally, it’s now time to look ahead to the next summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. Here’s everything you need to know about the next edition of the Games, which will mark the first in the United States in more than three decades.

When are the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics?

The 2028 Olympics will start on July 14, 2028, with the Opening and Closing Ceremonies scheduled to be hosted jointly the Los Angeles Coliseum and SoFi Stadium. The Games will officially end on July 30.

The Paralympic Games will then kick off in Southern California on Aug. 15 and run through Aug. 27.

When has Los Angeles (and the United States) hosted the Olympics before?

The 2028 Olympics will be the third held in Los Angeles. The city hosted its first ever Games in 1932, and then again in 1984.

Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympics, which were the last Summer Games held in the United States. The third edition of the modern Games were held in St. Louis in 1904. Those are the only four times that the Summer Olympics have been hosted by the United States. The Winter Olympics have been held in the United States four times, too, and will return for a fifth within the next decade.

What new sports will be at the 2028 Olympics?

The Los Angeles Games will feature a few new Olympic sports and several that haven’t been played at the Olympics for quite some time.

Most notably, men’s and women’s flag football will make its debut for the first time in 2028. It’s unclear who will make up the United States men’s team or if NFL players will participate, though several — including Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes — have said they are interested. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is the official ambassador for the new Olympic sport, too.

Squash will also make its debut as an official Olympic sport in 2028 after four previous attempts at entering the Games. Baseball and softball will return to the Olympics. Neither were played in Paris despite returning to the rotation in Tokyo.

Both lacrosse and cricket will return to the Olympics in Southern California for the first time in more than a century. Cricket has been played just once in the Olympics, back in 1900, and lacrosse was last contested in 1908.

And while breaking was added to the Olympics this summer in France, it won’t return in Los Angeles in 2028.

What venues will host the 2028 Games?

Events will be held in an all around Los Angeles, with some of the city’s most notable venues hosting the Games’ most prominent events.

Track and field is scheduled to be held at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a Southern California landmark that played host to the same events during the 1932 and 1984 Olympics.

Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium — built nearly 97 years after the 1923 completion of the L.A. Coliseum — will be equipped with a pool for the swimming competition. A multi-use venue that’s primarily used as the home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Chargers, SoFi Stadium will be one of the jewels of the 2028 Games. But it won’t host diving. Diving will take place outdoors a few miles away at Exposition Park, adjacent to the Coliseum.

Because the stands around the pool will be constructed after the Opening Ceremony, swimming and track and field will flip their traditional schedule slots in 2028. Swimming, which usually takes place during the first week of the Olympics will be delayed until the second week. Track and field will move to the first week.

Crypto.com Arena is the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of basketball’s most iconic teams. But it won’t host basketball at the 2028 Games. Instead, it will host gymnastics, giving one of the Games’ most prominent sports a high-profile downtown location.

Basketball will take place next to SoFi Stadium at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome, a newly completed arena that will be the new home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers next season.

The region’s vast Pacific coastline will host multiple events with sailing scheduled for Long Beach. Locations for surfing and beach volleyball have yet to be determined, but Southern California isn’t lacking for pristine options.

Golf, meanwhile, will be held at Riviera Country Club, an annual stop on the PGA Tour that’s twice hosted the PGA Championship.

A soccer venue has yet to be officially named, but with SoFi Stadium and the Coliseum already occupied, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena is the obvious choice. It hosted the World Cup final in 1994 and is reportedly slated to host the semifinals and finals of the men’s and women’s events in 2028. Earlier soccer action could potentially extend to other cities.

Organizing committee LA 28 is keeping a running list of venues and updates for other sports here.

Softball is in … Oklahoma City?

While most events will be held in Southern California, softball and canoe slalom will actually be held in Oklahoma City — which sits more than 1,300 miles east of Los Angeles.

Though that’s incredibly far away from the rest of the Games, Oklahoma City regularly hosts the women’s College World Series and already has facilities capable of hosting the event. It also has the Canoe Slalom Center, which is one of the best of its kind in the world.

What about the 2026 Olympics?

Before the Olympics descend on Southern California, the Games will make a pit stop in northern Italy in 2026.

The Games will be held across northern Italy, split largely between Milan and Cortina d’Amprezzo. They will feature eight new events and one new sport: ski mountaineering. The event, also known as skimo, features races where competitors have to ski uphill, carry equipment through snow and up the mountain before skiing back down to the finish line.

The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics will take place from Feb. 6, 2026-Feb. 22, 2026.

Other Future Olympics

Outside of Milano Cortina and Los Angeles, three other sites have already been announced for future Olympics.

The 2030 Winter Olympics will be held in the French Alps, with Nice being the main host city. Brisbane, Australia, will then host the 2032 Summer Olympics. The Winter Olympics will return to the United States in 2034, when Salt Lake City, Utah, hosts the Games.