The Olympic Games never disappoint, and they didn’t again in Northern Italy. The Winter Games in Milan-Cortina gave us two weeks filled with the shock, excitement, record-breaking feats and emotional goodbyes only the Olympic Games can give us.
And who could ever forget Paris 2024? The beach volleyball with the Eiffel tower in the background, Sifan Hassan’s historic three-peat, Léon Marchand’s home heroics, Simone Biles’ golden return, Noah Lyles’ unbelievably close 100m win, the heroics of Mondo Duplantis, the battle between Sidney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol… We could go on and on.
The Olympics always deliver; they make us even more excited about the next Olympic Games, which creep closer and closer. Can’t wait for the next Olympic Games, just like us? Then here’s everything you need to know about the 2028 Olympic Games.
Where are the 2028 Olympic Games being held?
For the next epic chapter, the Olympic Games will return to Los Angeles, California, in the United States in the summer of 2028.
The city on the American West Coast will host the Olympic Games for the third time in its history after 1932 and 1984, joining London (1908, 1948, 2012) and Paris (1900, 1924, 2024) as the only three-time hosts in the competition’s rich history.
In addition to Los Angeles, two sports will be held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
When are the 2028 Olympic Games?
The 2028 Olympic Games will be held from July 12th to July 30th.
The opening ceremony will be held at 17.00 PST (08.00 CET) on Friday, July 14th, and will be held simultaneously at SoFi Stadium and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The closing ceremony will take place on Sunday, July 30th, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
What venues will the 2028 Olympic Games be held at?
The 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles will be held across eight venues in the city, while Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will host two venues.
The Greater Los Angeles Area has been divided into 17 zones, each hosting different sports. Several permanent venues will host the following sports.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will host athletics events, while SoFi Stadium, which is normally used by the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers from the NFL, will host all swimming events.
Other venues in Los Angeles include the Los Angeles Lakers’ Crypto.com Arena (gymnastics, boxing), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome (basketball), the Rose Bowl (football), Santa Anita Park (equestrian), and Riviera Country Club (golf), while the newly added flag football and lacrosse will be played at BMO Stadium, home of Los Angeles FC in the Major League Soccer.
Six zones will host at least three sporting events:
Long Beach Zone (11): Shooting (rifle & pistol) (Long Beach Target Shooting Hall), swimming (artistic swimming, water polo) (Long Beach Aquatics Center), open water swimming, coastal rowing, sailing (windsurfing & kite) (Belmont Shore), rowing, canoe sprint (Marine Stadium), handball (Long Beach Arena), beach volleyball (Alamitos Beach Stadium), sport climbing (Long Beach Climbing Theater).
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) (7): gymnastics (artistic & trampoline), boxing (Crypto.com Arena, or DTLA Arena), fencing, judo, table tennis, taekwondo, wrestling (LA Convention Center), baseball (Dodger Stadium), boxing (preliminary stages), weightlifting (Peacock Theater).
Exposition Park (5): athletics (track & field) (Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum), badminton, rhythmic gymnastics (Galen Center), flag football, lacrosse (BMO Stadium, or Exposition Park Stadium).
Carson (5): field hockey (Carson Field), archery, rugby sevens (Carson Stadium), tennis (Carson Courts), track cycling (Carson Velodrome).
Valley (4): 3x3 basketball, BMX (freestyle & racing), modern pentathlon, skateboarding (park & street) (Valley Complexes)
Venice (3): athletics (marathon - start), road cycling (start) (Venice Beach Boardwalk), triathlon (Venice Beach).
Two zones host two sporting events: Inglewood (swimming at SoFi Stadium/2028 Stadium, basketball at Intuit Dome) and Pasadena (football at Rose Bowl Stadium, diving at Rose Bowl Aquatics Center).
The following zones only host one sporting event:
Universal City (squash at Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios), Pomona (cricket at Fairgrounds Cricket Stadium), Arcadia (equestrian at Santa Anita Park), Whittier Narrows (shotgun shooting at Whitter Narrows Clay Shooting Center), City of Industry (mountain biking and Industry Hills MTB Course), Riviera (golf at Riviera Country Club), Port of Los Angeles (dingy, skiff & multihull sailing), Anaheim (volleyball at Honda Center), Trestles Beach (surfing at Trestles State Beach).
Oklahoma City, OK, will host softball at Devon Park and the canoe slalom at Riversport OKC.
Which (new) sports will we see at the 2028 Olympic Games?
The Olympic Games in Los Angeles will see all traditional sports, the so-called core program, return, while one sport from the 2024 Paris Olympics won’t return, and seven new ones will take the stage.
The core program stands as follows:
Aquatics (artistic swimming, diving, marathon swimming, swimming, water polo), archery, athletics, badminton, basketball (basketball, 3x3 basketball), boxing, canoeing (slalom, sprint), cycling (road cycling, track cycling, BMX, mountain biking), equestrian (dressage, eventing, jumping), fencing, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics (artistic, rhythmic, trampoline), handball, judo, lacrosse, modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, shooting, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball (beach volleyball, volleyball), weightlifting, and wrestling (freestyle, Greco-Roman).
After the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing were all added to the Olympics’ core program. Breaking, which was part of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, has not been elected to return.
Six sports will either make their return to the Olympic Games or debut in 2028:
Baseball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, softball, and squash.
Baseball and softball will return to the Olympics for the first time since 2020, while cricket returns for the first time since 1900 and lacrosse for the first time since 1908. Flag Football, a non-contact variant of American football, will make its debut at the 2028 Olympic Games, just like squash.
In addition to the new sports, the IOC added new events to multiple sports. Athletics will introduce a 4x100m mixed relay, while swimming will have 50-metre races in the backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke events added to the program. Archery will see the mixed team compound make its Olympic debut, while mixed-gender teams will also appear for the first time in artistic gymnastics, coastal rowing (mixed double sculls), golf, and table tennis.
Water polo and boxing will also see the male and female competitions levelled, with the women's water polo tournament expanding to 12 teams, matching the men's, and one yet-to-be-named weight class added to women's boxing, which will now have as many classes as the men's. The 3x3 basketball tournament will feature 12 teams in both the men's and women's events, up from 12 at the 2024 Olympics.
The sport climbing tournament will be divided into three medal events, separating the previous all-encompassing tournament into speed, boulder and lead categories.
The men's football tournament will feature 12 teams, down from 16 in previous years, while the women's football tournament will increase to 16 teams due to the sport's growing popularity.
To learn all about the new sports at the 2028 Olympics, read our article here >
Coastal rowing, also called beach sprint rowing, was the only accepted new discipline to an already-existing Olympic sport.
In total, the 2028 Summer Olympics will have 36 different sports and 351 total medal events - an increase of four sports and 22 events over the 2024 Paris Olympics.
What does the calendar of the 2028 Olympic Games look like?
The Olympic Games in Los Angeles officially start on Wednesday, July 12th, two days before the opening ceremony on Friday, July 14th.
Water polo, baseball, basketball, cricket, field hockey, football, handball, and rugby sevens all start on either Wednesday, July 12th, or Thursday, July 13th, while only canoe slalom will have qualifiers take place on Friday, July 14th - one day before the majority of the competitions start.
Contrary to previous years, athletics events will take place during the first week of the Olympic Games, while swimming will take place during the second week, marking the first time since the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City that athletics will take place in the first week of the Olympics. The switch is to allow SoFi Stadium to host both the opening ceremony and the swimming events, for which the stadium will be reconfigured to accommodate a specially built pool.
The Saturdays, the last of which is also called Super Saturday, will feature the most medal events by far, with 83 scheduled for July 15th (12), 22nd (30), and 29th (41). On Sunday, July 30th, 18 medal events will take place before the closing ceremony.
What does the day-by-day calendar of the 2028 Olympic Games look like?
The day-by-day calendar of the 2028 Olympics looks as follows, with medal events written in bold and the number of medal events in brackets:
Wednesday, July 12th: water polo, basketball, cricket, field hockey, football, handball, rugby sevens.
Thursday, July 13th: water polo, baseball, basketball, cricket, field hockey, football, handball, rugby sevens.
Friday, July 14th: canoe slalom
Saturday, July 15th: water polo, athletics (3), badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoe slalom, cricket, BMX, equestrian eventing, fencing (2), field hockey, flag football, football, artistic gymnastics, handball, judo (2), modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby sevens, shooting (2), squash, surfing, table tennis, triathlon, beach volleyball, volleyball
Sunday, July 16th: diving, water polo, athletics (4), badminton, baseball, basketball, 3x3 basketball, boxing, canoe slalom, cricket, BMX (2), equestrian eventing, fencing (2), field hockey, flag football, football, artistic gymnastics, handball, judo (2), modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, shooting (2), squash, surfing, table tennis, triathlon, beach volleyball, volleyball
Monday, July 17th: diving, marathon swimming, water polo, athletics (4), badminton, baseball, basketball, 3x3 basketball, boxing, canoe slalom, cricket, mountain biking, equestrian eventing, fencing, field hockey, flag football, artistic gymnastics, handball, judo (2), modern pentathlon, rowing (2), rugby sevens, sailing, shooting (2), squash, surfing, table tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball
Tuesday, July 18th: diving, marathon swimming, water polo, athletics (4), badminton, baseball, basketball, 3x3 basketball, boxing, canoe slalom, cricket, mountain biking, equestrian eventing (2), fencing, field hockey, flag football, football, artistic gymnastics, handball, judo (2), modern pentathlon, rowing (2), rugby sevens, sailing, shooting (2), skateboarding, squash, surfing (2), table tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball
Wednesday, July 19th: diving, water polo, archery, athletics (5), badminton, baseball, basketball, 3x3 basketball, boxing, canoe slalom, cricket, road cycling (2), fencing, field hockey, flag football, football, artistic gymnastics, handball, judo (2), rowing (2), sailing (2), shooting, skateboarding, squash, table tennis, tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball
Thursday, July 20th: diving, water polo, athletics (4), badminton, basketball, 3x3 basketball, boxing, canoe slalom, cricket, equestrian dressage, fencing, field hockey, flag football, golf, artistic gymnastics, handball, judo (2), rowing (2), sailing (2), shooting, skateboarding, squash, table tennis, tennis, triathlon, beach volleyball, volleyball
Friday, July 21st: diving, water polo, archery, athletics (4), badminton, basketball, 3x3 basketball, boxing, canoe slalom, equestrian dressage, fencing, field hockey, flag football, football, golf, trampoline (2), handball, judo (2), rowing (2), shooting, squash, table tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball
Saturday, July 22nd: diving, swimming (4), water polo, archery, athletics (5), badminton, basketball, 3x3 basketball (2), boxing, canoe slalom (2), cricket, road cycling, equestrian dressage, fencing, field hockey, flag football, football, golf, artistic gymnastics (3), handball, judo, rowing (2), shooting (2), squash, table tennis, tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball
Sunday, July 23rd: swimming (5), water polo, archery, athletics (5), badminton, softball, basketball, boxing, cricket, road cycling, fencing, field hockey, golf, artistic gymnastics (3), handball, sailing, shooting, squash, table tennis, tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball
Monday, July 24th: swimming (4), archery, athletics (6), badminton (2), softball, basketball, cricket, equestrian dressage, field hockey, football, golf, artistic gymnastics (4), handball, lacrosse, coastal rowing (2), sailing, shooting, squash, table tennis, tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball, wrestling
Tuesday, July 25th: artistic swimming, diving, swimming (5), archery, softball, basketball, canoe sprint, cricket, track cycling (2), equestrian jumping, field hockey, football, artistic gymnastics, handball, lacrosse, coastal rowing, sailing, shooting, skateboarding, sport climbing, table tennis, tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball, weightlifting (2), wrestling (2)
Wednesday, July 26th: artistic swimming, diving, swimming (4), archery, softball, basketball, canoe sprint (3), cricket, track cycling, equestrian jumping, field hockey, golf, handball, lacrosse, sailing (2), skateboarding, sport climbing (2), table tennis, taekwondo (2), tennis, beach volleyball, volleyball, weightlifting (3), wrestling (3)
Thursday, July 27th: artistic swimming, diving, swimming (5), archery, athletics (2), softball, basketball, boxing (2), canoe spring, cricket, track cycling (3), field hockey, football, golf, rhythmic gymnastics, handball, lacrosse, sailing (2), skateboarding, sport climbing, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis (2), beach volleyball, volleyball, weightlifting (3), wrestling (3)
Friday, July 28th: artistic swimming, diving, swimming (4), archery, softball, basketball, boxing (2), canoe sprint (3), cricket, track cycling (2), equestrian jumping, field hockey, football, golf, rhythmic gymnastics, handball, lacrosse, sailing (2), sport climbing (2), table tennis, taekwondo (2), tennis (2), beach volleyball, volleyball, weightlifting (2), wrestling (3)
Saturday, July 29th: artistic swimming, swimming (5), athletics, softball, basketball, boxing (6), canoe sprint (4), cricket, track cycling, BMX (2), equestrian jumping, field hockey, football, golf, rhythmic gymnastics, lacrosse, sport climbing, table tennis, taekwondo (2), beach volleyball, volleyball, weightlifting (2), wrestling (3)
Sunday, July 30th: swimming (5), athletics, basketball, boxing (4), track cycling (3), volleyball, wrestling (3)
How much do tickets for the 2028 Olympic Games cost?
Tickets for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are not on sale yet; the registration period for the ticket raffle runs from January 14th to March 18th, 2026. The lucky ones who are chosen in the raffle receive an email in April with details on how to buy tickets for all events in the first drop, between April 9th and 19th.
A third of all Olympics tickets will cost less than $100 (€84.97), while one million total tickets will be sold for $28 (€23.79) to Los Angeles and Oklahoma City locals for the "$28 for '28" initiative.
Organisers expect to have approximately 14 million tickets on sale for both the Olympics and Paralympics, up from 12 million for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.
Sports fans can register for the draw via the website of the 2028 Olympic Games.
Where can I follow news about the 2028 Olympic Games?
Flashscore covers all the latest news about the run-up to the 2028 Olympics and the Games themselves. To follow all the latest Olympics news, check out the Flashscore website or download the Flashscore app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.