Los Angeles Will Host Summer Olympics In 2028 – NPR

A morning view of downtown Los Angeles from the Hollywood Bowl Overlook in January. The city will be hosting the Summer Olympics in 2028.

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

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Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

A morning view of downtown Los Angeles from the Hollywood Bowl Overlook in January. The city will be hosting the Summer Olympics in 2028.

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Los Angeles, which hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984, will be home to the Games again — in 2028.

The organizers of LA’s Olympics bid had originally been pursuing the 2024 games. But they ceded those games to Paris, and agreed to wait for the next round.

The decision will be officially announced on Monday afternoon. NPR’s Tom Goldman has confirmed the successful bid with an LA 2024 official.

LA will be only the second city to host the modern Olympics three times. London became the first three-time Olympic City in 2012.

As The Associated Press reports, the bidding for the 2024 games was marked by reluctance, rather than fierce competition:

” LA and Paris were the last two bids remaining after a tumultuous process that exposed the unwillingness of cities to bear the financial burden of hosting an event that has become synonymous with cost overruns.

“LA was not even the first American entrant in the contest. Boston withdrew two years ago as public support for its bid collapsed over concerns about use of taxpayer cash. The U.S. bid switched from the east to the West Coast as LA entered the race.

“But the same apprehensions that spooked politicians and the local population in Boston soon became evident in Europe where three cities pulled out.”

Hamburg, Rome and Budapest all saw their Olympic bids wither in the face of an unenthusiastic (or vehemently opposed) public.

With just two cities left, and a general sense of international Olympic-hosting apathy, the International Olympic Committee saw a chance to book two summers at once — and put off the next round of bids for a few years, the AP notes.

As for which city got which games, there were several factors at play. Paris last hosted the Games in 1924, which made it a “sentimental favorite” for the 2024 games, as Ben Bergman of member station KPCC noted last month. And Paris only had funding secured to build facilities for 2024.

“LA’s bid uses existing facilities, making it far more flexible and cheaper,” Bergman reported. “It won’t need to build any new permanent venues.”

The next summer games will be held in Tokyo in 2020. Upcoming Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next year, and in Beijing in 2022.