From Paris to LA: How the city is preparing for the next edition

Its Los Angeles turn for the torch Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag at the Paris closing ceremony Sunday before handing it off to a key representative of LAs local business Tom Cruise who in a prerecorded trek via motorcycle plane and parachute kicked off the countdown to the 2028 Los Angeles OlympicsThe city will become the third in the world to host the games three times as it adds to the storied years of 1932 and 1984 Heres a look forward and back in time at the 2028 Los Angeles OlympicsLAs Olympic trilogyLos Angeles got the 2028 games as a consolation prize when Paris was picked for 2024Back in 1932 LA hosted its first Olympics The city was the only bidder for the games at a time marred by the Great Depression and the absence of several nations Yet memorable sport moments came from athletes including American athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias who won golds in the new womens events of javelin and hurdlesFinancial and cultural success gave 1984 a reputation as the good Olympics which made seemingly every major world city want their ownEmphasizing both the modern and the classical with a hand from Hollywood the games opened with decathlon champion Rafer Johnson lighting the torch a guy in a jetpack descending into the Memorial Coliseum and theme music by Star Wars maestro John WilliamsWith Eastern Bloc countries boycotting the US dominated Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton are among the athletes who became household names A young Michael Jordan led the mens basketball team to goldThe games renewed for a while the global reputation of a city that had been perceived to be in declineWe want our games to be a modern games youthful full of the optimism that Southern California brings to the world and the globe Janet Evans fourtime Olympic gold medalist in swimming and chief athlete officer for the LA 2028 organizing committee told The Associated Press in ParisAlso ReadGender row may hurt boxingrsquos Olympic futurePassing the torchBass who arrives back in LA Monday spent these games in Paris along with organizers and city officials learning what it takes to host the worlds largest sporting eventJoining her were LA28 Chairperson Casey Wasserman an entertainment executive and LA councilmember Traci Park chair of the city Olympic committeeAs weve seen here in Paris the Olympics are an opportunity to make transformative change Bass said at a press conference ahead of the closing ceremonyVenues old and new plus a swimming stadiumAmid a stadiumandarena boom LA will polish existing structures rather than erect new onesIts a nobuild games Evans saidAfter Paris innovative opening ceremony on the Seine River LA plans to open with a traditional stadiumbased approach at SoFi Stadium in neighboring Inglewood that also incorporates the centuryold Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles itselfHome to two NFL teams SoFi has hosted a Super Bowl and several Taylor Swift concerts since opening in 2020 It will become what organizers say is the largest Olympic swimming venue ever Its opening ceremony role means swimming will come after track and field for the first time since 1972Intuit Dome the soontoopen Inglewood home of the NBAs Clippers would be the games newest major venue and is the planned home for Olympic basketball The Lakers downtown Cryptocom Arena will host gymnasticsThe toxicity of swimming in the Seine became a serious issue in Paris That could put renewed focus on the Long Beach area waterfront when it hosts marathon swimming and triathlon races Its cleanliness history is mixed but its ocean waters got consistently high marks in a 2023 analysis by nonprofit Heal the BayThe Long Beach shore was home to the prerecorded performances during Sundays ceremony of the Red Hot Chili Peppers Billie Eilish Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre though it was easy to mistake for LAs Venice Beach where the journey of the flag begun by Cruise was shown ending moments earlierAlso ReadParis Olympics India review Triumphs trials and takeawaysTrains buses and trafficA city thats notoriously hard to traverse may seem like an odd fit for the Olympics but it can workBass said she plans to emulate the tactics of Tom Bradley the mayor in 1984 whose traffic mitigations had some saying it was better than at nonOlympic times They include asking local businesses to stagger workforce hours to reduce the number of cars on the road and allow work from home during the 17day gamesLanding the Olympics under thenMayor Eric Garcetti in 2017 gave the city an unusually long lead time for planningWhile its no Paris Metro LA has built a subway since its last Olympics with lines running past major venuesIn 2018 the city planned an ambitious slate of 28 bus and rail projects to transform public transit Some were scrapped but others moved forward including the extension of a subway line to connect downtown Los Angeles with UCLA the planned home of the Olympic VillageAnother highprofile project is the Inglewood People Mover an automated threestop rail line past major Olympic venues It initially received a commitment of 1 billion in federal funding but opposition from Democratic Rep Maxine Waters led to a 200 million reduction the Los Angeles Times reported Its unclear whether the line will be completed by 2028With agency inputs