The Coliseum: for history, and athletics
After the 1932 and 1984 Games, the Coliseum will host athletics for the third time, the historic link of the American organization. The monumental venue, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023 and could accommodate more than 100,000 spectators, is a must for Californian sport, for university matches in particular of the Trojans (US football team of the University of Southern California), with a capacity now reduced to 77,500 people. The Coliseum, at the exhibition center (center), will also host part of the opening ceremony, returning to a stadium after the parade on the Seine in Paris.
Swimming: the choice of excess
Following the success of the 2024 Olympic swimming trials held in an American football stadium in Indianapolis, LA28 will go even further by transforming the modern SoFi Stadium (host of the Rams and Chargers, US football), inaugurated in 2020, into a giant swimming arena with 38,000 seats, a site worthy of the future exploits of Katie Ledecky and Léon Marchand.
The “Inglewood Stadium”, as it is known at the Olympics, will also host part of the opening ceremony. In order to give it time to set up the swimming pool, the Games programme has been adapted by reversing the athletics, which will start, and the swimming, which will continue in the second week.
In a swimsuit in Long Beach
Famous for its miles of beaches, including the famous Santa Monica and Venice Beaches, Los Angeles has chosen to consolidate its outdoor aquatic events in Long Beach, a city in southern Los Angeles County. Open water swimming and triathlon will be held at Alamitos Beach, and sailing will be held off Belmont Shore. Once scheduled for Lake Perris, about 60 miles to the east, rowing (as at the 1932 Games) and canoe sprints will be held in the city’s “Marine Stadium.” Water polo joins artistic swimming at the port city’s convention center.
Oklahoma, Temecula, some remote locations
Faced with the absence of a canoe slalom pool and a sufficiently large softball stadium in Los Angeles, the organizers decided to relocate these two sports to Oklahoma City, 2,100 km east of the City of Angels. Horse riding is sent to Temecula, about a hundred kilometers to the southeast. Two exceptions in the middle of an otherwise fairly grouped map of sites.
Sweating among skyscrapers
In the city’s business district, “Downtown”, where LA’s few skyscrapers rub shoulders, several sports will take place in the many halls of the sector, which hosts daily sporting and cultural events. Gymnastics will take place in the Arena of “Downtown”, which notably hosts LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers. Weightlifting has recently joined the “theater” hall, while fencing, judo, table tennis, taekwondo and wrestling will take place in the convention center.
Several “hubs”
Most of the venues are grouped into “hubs,” such as Carson (south of Los Angeles, north of Long Beach), home to the LA Galaxy soccer club, which will host rugby sevens, tennis at the National Center, field hockey, and track cycling at the Velodrome. The urbanized “valley” of San Fernando, located north of the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains, snubbed at previous editions of the Games, has been designated for BMX, skateboarding and archery.
