New sporty and “authentic” look characterizes the LA Games 2028

PARIS – Paris will always be part of the Olympic Games. Next up for the Summer Games: Los Angeles in 2028.

At Sunday's closing ceremony in Paris, the baton will be passed from one city hosting the Olympics for the third time to the next, and in four years' time, many things will be different.

New sports will make their Olympic debut. Organizers in Los Angeles have selected them while reviving others that left the program more than 100 years ago.

While Paris had the Seine, LA has the Pacific Ocean and its beaches.

Paris's incomparable historic buildings gave the city a cinematic look. The streets of LA are a living film and television history.

Here's a look at some things that will be different at the next Summer Games.

NEW SPORTS

Flag football, squash and steeplechase racing. Yes, American Ninja Warrior-style steeplechase racing to replace the horses and spice up the modern pentathlon.

Sports invited to the Olympic Games are usually played around the world, but in the modern Olympics they must also be requested by the host city.

Flag football fits well with organizers in Los Angeles, who told IOC members before their vote last year that the sport represents “the future and the spearhead of the international growth of American football.”

In addition to tennis and badminton, squash will be a racket sport at the Games. Could padel or pickleball follow one day?

Squash was eliminated in several previous seasons and, like flag football, is now contested on a game-by-game basis with no guarantee that it will remain in Brisbane until the 2032 Olympic Games.

The modern pentathlon has been an integral part of the Olympic Games since 1912, but has often been on the verge of being replaced. At the request of the IOC, equestrianism is being replaced as one of the five disciplines after a horse was mistreated in Tokyo three years ago.

LA has obstacle racing with the goal of making the sport more accessible and tangible.

BACK IN LA

Lacrosse was last played at the Olympic Games in 1908, and cricket has not been played since 1900.

Both will return in 2028 with the strong support of Los Angeles organizers and in spectator-friendly short formats: lacrosse in a six-a-side version, cricket in the aggressive, hard-hitting T20 version that doesn't require five days per game.

Lacrosse pays respect to the sport's indigenous roots: “It's really authentic to the country we're in,” LA 2028 chairman Casey Wasserman said Saturday.

Cricket is a popular sport, especially for the more than 1.6 billion people in India and Pakistan.

“They're going to be paying more attention to the Olympics than ever before,” Wasserman said. Cricket will certainly stay in Brisbane in 2032, home to one of the sport's most famous venues.

Baseball and softball have perhaps the most unusual Olympic history in modern times: out after the 2008 Games in Beijing, back in Tokyo in 2021, out in Paris, back in LA. Well, in the case of softball: Oklahoma City.

Devon Park, about 2,100 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean, will host the Women's Softball Championship in 2028 and the annual Women's College World Series.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he is open to allowing Major League Baseball players to participate in the LA Games, but significant challenges remain. Insurance policies for players like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, whose contracts are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, could be the biggest sticking point.

EARLY OPENING

The next Summer Games will begin two weeks earlier with an opening ceremony on Friday, July 14.

There is no river in LA that can compete with the parade of athletes on boats on the Seine in Paris, but two stadiums will be used instead of one: Both SoFi Stadium and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will be in play.

This plan means changing the schedule of the modern Summer Games.

Track and field will be held at the Coliseum – as it was in 1932 and 1984 – and will now move up a week, replacing swimming as the main sport. The reason for this is that So-Fi must be converted into a spectacular temporary swimming hall with seating for 38,000 fans. The races will be moved to the second full week.

The end date of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles is July 30, marking the first time the Summer Olympics in the Northern Hemisphere have ended this early since the 1924 Olympics in Paris ended on July 27.

WHAT THE LA GAMES LOOK LIKE?

The Paris Olympics often looked incredible on screen. Los Angeles practically invented the look of modern cinema and television and is a creative hub for music and fashion.

So the message to LA is always: don’t try to copy Paris.

“Paris is the most beautiful city in the world,” Wasserman said on Saturday. “The 2028 Games will be authentic Los Angeles.”

The IOC's head of Olympic broadcasting, Yiannis Exarchos, said LA “cannot reinvent a city (Paris) with 500 years of history. LA speaks of the future, of new frontiers, of technology.”

Road races such as marathons and cycling races could show “where a large part of the mythology of the 20th century was created, thanks to Hollywood,” Exarchos said in an interview.

“That's what fascinates me more. I find it interesting to see how we can recreate the television geography of LA.”

Norway's Anders Berntsen Mol serves against Spain in a quarterfinal match of beach volleyball at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, at Eiffel Tower Stadium. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)