Los Angeles Confirmed to Host Olympic Games in 2028

Dates finalized: Will head to Paris in 2024 and L.A. four years later

Los Angeles Olympics

Paris and Los Angeles are now confirmed as the sites of the next two summer Olympic Games.

Though the deal was first reported by the Los Angeles Times back in July, the location of the next two games were made official by the International Olympics Committee with an announcement by IOC President Thomas Bach at the organization’s meeting in Lima, Peru on Wednesday.

“Congratulations to Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028! This historic double allocation is a ‘win-win-win’ situation for the city of Paris, the city of Los Angeles and the IOC,” said Bach. “These are two great cities from two great countries with a great Olympic history. Both cities are very enthusiastic about the Games and are promoting the Olympic spirit in a fantastic way.”

“Bringing the Olympics back home to LA gives us the chance to imagine what our city will look like a decade from now,” said L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. “LA is a city where the Games are not a barrier to making progress; we know that they are an accelerating force to re-envisioning a better city and a better world in the days ahead as we welcome you back to the City of Angels.”

Awarding two separate summer games at the same time gives the International Olympic Committee a potential decade-long respite from what has become an increasingly headache-prone process, with increased scrutiny — and criticism — of both the costs of hosting the Olympics, and behavior by IOC officials, dogging the selection of host cities.

Notably, in 2014 Norway withdrew its bid to host the 2022 Winter games in part because of outrageous demands the IOC made. Among them a party for IOC officials paid for by Norway’s Royal Family, the requirement that IOC officials be greeted with smiles whenever returning to their hotels, and a full bar for IOC officials during the games, paid for by Norway.

This will be Los Angeles’ third olympic games after 1984 and 1932, and the first U.S. Summer Games since Atlanta in 1996. The Winter Games in 2002 were held in Salt Lake City.

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