LOS ANGELES – The majority of the competition schedule for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics was announced Wednesday by its organizing committee, LA28.
The 2028 Games will be the largest in history with 51 sports. The opening ceremony is scheduled for July 14, 2028, with the closing ceremony set for Day 16, July 30, 2028.
The first medal event will be the triathlon, which will be held in Venice on Day 1, July 15.
However, as is custom, several team sports will begin preliminary competition before the opening ceremony — cricket, soccer, handball, water polo, basketball, rugby and field hockey.
The final Olympic champions will be decided on Day 16 in swimming at SoFi Stadium, just before the closing ceremony.
There will be 26 finals sessions across 23 sports on what organizers are billing as “Super Saturday,” July 29, 2028, with 15 gold and bronze medal team sport matchups and finals for 15 individual sports.
Baseball and softball will be returning to the Olympics after not being on the schedule for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The baseball gold medal game will be played on Day 5 at Dodger Stadium and the softball gold medal game on Day 15 in Oklahoma City.
The softball and canoe slalom competitions will be held in Oklahoma City because there are no appropriate venues in Southern California and organizers opted not to build temporary venues to reduce costs.
Cricket will be part of the Olympics for the first time since 1900, when one match between Great Britain and France was played. The final match of the women’s tournament will be played on Day 6, and the men’s tournament on Day 15, both at Fairplex in Pomona.
Lacrosse is also set to return with both women’s and men’s final set for Day 15 at BMO Stadium in Exposition Park. Lacrosse last appeared at the 1908 London Games, and later as a demonstration sport in Amsterdam in 1928, and again in Los Angeles in 1932 and London 1948.
Flag football and squash will be making their Olympic debuts on Day 1. The first men’s and women’s flag football team champions will be decided on Days 7 and 8, respectively, while women’s and men’s squash champions will be decided on Days 9 and 10.
Six mixed-gender team events will also make their Olympic debuts in 2028.
Champions will be decided in track’s 4x100m mixed relay on Day 3, followed by compound bow event in archery on Day 7, and mixed-team event in golf on Day 10.
Additionally, champions will be decided in mixed team events in artistic gymnastics and double sculls in coastal beach sprint rowing on Day 11, with mixed team events in table tennis on Day 15.
LA28 will release details for the soccer tournaments in the future. — Group play matches for soccer will be played at stadiums outside the Los Angeles area, which have not been determined, while the knockout stage will be played at the Rose Bowl.
The LA28 Paralympic competitions schedule by day, session and event will also be announced later.
The schedule was created in “extremely close” relationship with the International Olympic Committee and international federations in 36 sports, Shana Ferguson, LA28 chief of sport and head of games delivery, said during a call with reporters Tuesday morning.
“We don’t do any of this scheduled development without them, quite frankly, they’re the experts, so we would be foolish to build any schedule without them,” Ferguson said.
Weather conditions were certainly a factor as well, ensuring that athletes, fans and animals, such as horses, weren’t impacted by heat during Southern California’s summer.
LA28 previously announced track and field and swimming would swap their traditional spots on the Olympic calendar, with track and field being held in the first week and swimming in the second week, which officials said was necessary to prepare SoFi Stadium to hold water competitions.
Registration for Games tickets will begin in January 2026 on LA28.org.
