Los Angeles to host Olympics in 2028

Long Beach is a likely venue for competitive sailing events during Summer Games.

LOS ANGELES — The 2028 Summer Games returns to Los Angeles for the third time in the modern era, meaning the world’s best sailors will be on display in Southern California waters and competing for Olympic gold.

City leaders announced Los Angeles reached an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2028 Games, marking the third time Southern California’s largest city will have the quadrennial athletic event in town.

Los Angeles first hosted the Summer Games in 1932, with rowing events held at the Marine Stadium in Long Beach and competitive yachting taking place in the Pacific Ocean near the Port of Los Angeles.

A record 62 countries competed in sailing events during the 1984 Summer Games in Long Beach. Competitions were held in nine categories: mistral – men’s windsurfer; women’s mistral; Finn one-person dinghy heavyweight; winglider – men’s windsurfer; 470 – two-person dinghy, men’s; Fleetmatch race keelboat open soling, mixed; two-person keelboat open star, mixed; tornado – multihull, mixed; and, Flying Dutchman, mixed.

The 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro featured 13 sailing events, including 49er skiff (men) and laser. It remains to be seen which classes to be featured at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, what with the Olympic competition still more than a decade away.

Long Beach would likely host sailing events in 2028, with venue specifics to become clearer as the Olympic competition draws nearer. The city is already home to the U.S. Sailing Center, several yacht clubs and the only city-owned marina in Southern California.

Several competitive sailing events and regattas are regularly held off the Long Beach coast. The Congressional Cup came to town in March and Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week just completed in late June.

Hosting sailing events in Long Beach were mentioned in official plans for the 2024 Summer Games, which Los Angeles initially applied to host. Several cities either bowed out or were not selected to host the Olympic event in 2024, eventually leaving Los Angeles and Paris as the last two competitors.

The IOC hinted whoever lost out on the 2024 Summer Games would be granted the Olympic competition four years later.

A formal vote on the matter was never lodged, however, as Los Angeles agreed to host the Summer Games in 2028.

London, Los Angeles and Paris would, by 2028, become the only cities to host the Summer Games a record three times. Paris last hosted the Summer Games in 1924.

The United States will host the Summer Olympics for the record fifth time. The summer competition was previously held in St. Louis (1904), Atlanta (1996) and Los Angeles (1932, 1984).

Parimal M. Rohit photo

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