From Paris to Los Angeles: How the city is preparing for the 2028 Olympics

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles is next for the torch. Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag during the Closing ceremony in Paris Sunday, before handing it over to a top local LA business executive — Tom Cruise — who kicked off the countdown to 2028 during a pre-recorded tour by motorcycle, plane and parachute.

The city will become the third in the world to host the Games three times, after the legendary years of 1932 and 1984. Here’s a look back in time at the Olympic Games in LA.

The LA Olympic Trilogy

Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 Games as a consolation prize when Paris was chosen for 2024.

Back in 1932, LA hosted its first Olympic Games. The city was the only bidder for the Games at a time marked by the Great Depression and the absence of several countries. Still, there were memorable sporting moments from athletes such as American athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who won gold in the new women’s javelin and hurdles events.

Financial and cultural success gave 1984 a reputation as the “good” Olympics, making it seem like every major city in the world wanted one.

The games, which emphasized both the modern and the classical with a Hollywood twist, opened with decathlon champion Rafer Johnson lighting the torch, a man in a jetpack descending into the Memorial Coliseum and theme music from the “Star Wars” maestro. John Williams.

With boycotts of Eastern Bloc countries, the US dominated. Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton are among the athletes who became household names. A young Michael Jordan led the men’s basketball team to gold.

The Games temporarily revived the global reputation of a city that had fallen into disrepair.

“We want our Games to be modern, youthful and full of the optimism that Southern California brings to the world and the globe,” said Janet Evans, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming and chief athlete officer for the LA 2028 organizing committee. told The Associated Press in Paris.

Passing the torch

Bass, who returns to LA on Monday, spent the Games in Paris with organizers and city officials, learning what it takes to put on the world’s biggest sporting event.

She was joined by LA28 President Casey Wasserman, an entertainment executive, and LA City Councilwoman Traci Park, chair of the city’s Olympic Committee.

“As we have seen here in Paris, the Olympic Games are an opportunity to create transformative change,” Bass said said at a press conference before the closing ceremony.

Old and new locations, plus a swimming stadium

With so many stadiums and arenas, LA would rather polish existing structures than build new ones.

“It’s a game without any build-up,” Evans said.

After Paris’s innovative opening ceremony On the Seine River, LA plans to take a traditional stadium-style approach at SoFi Stadium in neighboring Inglewood, which will also incorporate Los Angeles’ century-old Memorial Coliseum.

SoFi is home to two NFL teams and has hosted a Super Bowl and several other events. Taylor Swift Concerts since it opened in 2020. It will be what organizers say the largest Olympic swimming venue ever. The role of opening ceremony means that swimming will be placed after athletics for the first time since 1972.

Intuit Dome, the soon-to-open Inglewood home of the NBA’s Clippers, would be the games’ newest major venue and is the planned home of Olympic basketball. The Lakers’ Crypto.com Arena downtown will host gymnastics.

The toxicity of swimming in the Seine became a serious problem in Paris. That could bring Long Beach’s waterfront back into the spotlight when it hosts marathon swimming and triathlon races. Its cleanliness record is mixed, but the ocean water consistently earned high marks in a 2023 analysis by nonprofit Heal the Bay.

The Long Beach coast was home to the pre-recorded performances during Sunday’s ceremony from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre, although it was easily confused with LA’s Venice Beach, where Cruise’s flag-raising journey had ended moments earlier.

Trains, buses and traffic

A city notorious for its difficulty may not seem like a good fit for the Olympics, but it could work.

Bass said she plans to emulate the tactics of Tom Bradley, the mayor in 1984. Some said his traffic restrictions were better than during non-Olympic times. They are asking local businesses to stagger hours to reduce the number of cars on the road and to allow people to work from home during the 17-day games.

When the Olympic Games were hosted in 2017 under then-Mayor Eric Garcetti, the city took an unusually long time to plan.

While not a Paris Metro, LA has built a metro line since the last Olympics, with lines running past major locations.

In 2018, the city planned an ambitious set of 28 bus and rail projects to transform public transportation. Some were scrapped, but others went ahead, including the extension of a subway line to connect downtown Los Angeles to UCLA, the planned home of the Olympic Village.

Another notable project is the Inglewood People Mover, an automated rail line with three stops at key Olympic venues. It initially received a $1 billion federal funding commitment, but opposition from Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters led to a $200 million cut, according to the Los Angeles Times reportedIt is unclear whether the line will be ready in 2028.

Metro recently received $900 million in funding through an infrastructure spending package and grants from the Biden administration, $139 million of which will go directly toward improving transportation by 2028 and the goal of a “car-free” Olympics.

“The biggest challenge is not waiting until 2028, but really seizing the opportunity between now and 2028 to help both Los Angeles residents and visitors reimagine the transportation network as something that will be their first choice,” said Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins.

Crime, safety and perception

While crime rates were significantly higher in 1984 than they are today, the countdown to 2028 begins as the issue gains more attention and has a major impact on social media.

The Olympic Games are designated as a national security event, and the U.S. Secret Service is the primary agency charged with developing a security plan, supported by significant federal resources.

The Los Angeles City and County Police Department sent officers to Paris to observe, learn and assist in preparations for the 2028 Games.

There are far more encampments on the city’s streets than there were in 1984, and it’s unlikely that LA will have solved its homeless crisis in the next four years. When the Paris Games ended, California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened to pull funding from cities that could not set up camps.

In preparation for the Games in Paris, the organizers have thousands of homeless relocateda practice also used for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games and criticized by activists as “social cleansing.”

Tourists and finance

LA is the “next logical destination” for the Olympics, said Adam Burke, president and CEO of the LA Tourism and Convention Board. “LA has truly become one of the sports capitals of the world.”

But first the city will have a FIFA World Cup Event and the US Women’s Open in 2026 and another Super Bowl in 2027.

The city’s hotel sector continues to grow, with 9,000 new hotel rooms added in the last four years, and more to come in the next four years.

LA28 organizers are counting on ticket sales, sponsorships, payments from the International Olympic Committee and other revenue streams to cover the Games’ $6.9 billion budget. The committee has raised just over $1 billion toward a goal of $2.5 billion in domestic corporate sponsorship.

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Associated Press journalist Noreen Nassir contributed from Paris.