Featured image credit: LA28
The venue plan for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles has been approved, as the medal events programme and athlete quota for the Games was confirmed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The LA28 organising committee has presented its venue masterplan to the IOC executive board, with the proposals approved by the respective international federations and supported “without reservation” by the executive board.
It marks the final stage of approval for the venue plan, with further information to be shared by LA28 at a later date.
Yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) approval came after LA28 opted to end talks over hosting beach volleyball events at Santa Monica State Beach. The City of Santa Monica, which is recognised as the birthplace of modern beach volleyball, had been in discussions about hosting the sport during LA28 since Los Angeles first bid for the Games back in 2016.
However, following two years of negotiations, LA28 and the city have opted to end formal talks. LA28 has informed the city that it plans on hosting beach volleyball elsewhere, but the location is yet to be confirmed.
In July last year, LA28 revealed host venues for 19 more sports, including badminton, golf and track cycling. This came after initial venue plans were revealed in June.
Notably, swimming events during the Games will be held at SoFi Stadium, while gymnastics and basketball will take place at Crypto Arena and Intuit Dome, respectively. Canoe slalom and softball competitions will be held away from Los Angeles, in Oklahoma City.
It was announced yesterday that LA28 will award a record number of Olympic medals, and for the first time all team sports will have at least the same number of women’s teams as men’s teams.
The women’s football (soccer) tournament will be expanded to include 16 teams, with the men’s event to be adjusted to 12 teams. Last month, it was announced that the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena will serve as the focal point of football competitions during the Games.
Water polo and boxing will also achieve gender equality for the first time, while the 3×3 basketball tournament will expand to feature 12 women’s and 12 men’s teams. Six mixed-gender team events will also be debuted across archery, artistic gymnastics, athletics (4x100m relay), coastal rowing beach sprint, golf and table tennis.
Additional medal events added to the programme include a 50m distance swim for the women’s and men’s competition in backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Sport climbing has also gained two medal opportunities by separating the previous combined boulder and lead event into speed, boulder and lead.
A total of 351 medal events will be contested during the Games – 22 more than in Paris last year. The core athlete quota of 10,500 will be maintained, with an extra 698 places allocated for the five sports proposed by the LA28 organising committee (baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash).
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