PARIS (WOOD) — The 2024 Olympics run for almost two more weeks, but some already have their focus on the next Summer Games.
“It’s funny because we’re all about Paris right now, but the day those closing ceremonies happen for the Olympics and the Paralympics, all eyes are on us and Paris in the rear-view mirror. So we know we’re next,” 2028 organizer Janet Evans said.
The 2028 Games will be held in Los Angeles, its third time hosting. Evans, a five-time Olympic medalist who swam in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992, is the chief athlete officer.
She and the rest of the LA organizing committee couldn’t attend the Tokyo Olympics together because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, so Paris is their first real opportunity to scrutinize how the Games work as a team.
“We’re learning a lot. We’re observing transportation, we’re observing conditions in the village for the athletes, we’re observing venues and just the general flow of how things are going here,” Evans said. “(Paris organizers are) doing a great job. The competitions are going great.”
She said the LA committee is sure to use every minute of the next four years to get ready.
“For us, it’s understanding how all of it works together, how all the teams operate together. It’s an operations piece for us, really,” Evans said.
She said LA will have to accommodate about 10,500 Olympians and 6,000 Paralympians, plus their coaches, trainers and families. She said LA organizers already held town halls around the country to learn what athletes want and need — everything from support for family to more opportunities for parties.
The good news is that LA already has all the venues it needs, including the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which Evans called a “shining jewel” that was at the center of the city’s 2015 bid for the Games.
“The Coliseum is hosting track and field for the third time in history,” Evans said. “Anytime I was in the Coliseum, regardless of what event it was for, to me, it always breathed the Olympics. You walk through the Peristyle (entryway) and there’s carvings of Olympians and the names of all the winners from ’84 and ’32 on the walls. I’m so excited to bring it back to the Coliseum.”
