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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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When Los Angeles was announced as the host city for the 2028 Summer Olympics, infrastructure appeared to be among the least of its worries. The city hosted the 1984 Olympic Games and the main venues for its premier events 40 years ago — UCLA's Pauley Pavilion for gymnastics, the L.A. Memorial Coliseum for track and field events, and opening and closing ceremonies — are still thriving.
Track and field events will still be contested at the Coliseum. But in a sweeping announcement Friday, the LA28 organizing committee announced the inclusion of several new or renovated pro sports facilities to its lineup of venues for the Games, a change in direction from the initial venue list developed in 2017.
To summarize:
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• Gymnastics will be held at Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center), home of the Los Angeles Lakers, Sparks, and Kings
• Swimming be held at SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL's Rams and Chargers
• Basketball will be held at the Intuit Dome, home of the NBA's Clippers
• Track and field, and Paralympic events, will be held at the Los Angeles Coliseum
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In a press release Friday, LA28 said its previous venue plan was developed before the City of Los Angeles had won the bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Since then, several new state-of-the-art stadiums and arenas became available, new sports were added to the 2028 program, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) developed new policy to encourage host cities to prioritize using existing or temporary venues.
With that in mind, the softball and canoe slalom competitions were assigned to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, because of a lack of suitable facilities for each event in Southern California.
Venues were also announced Friday for BMX Freestyle and BMX Racing, Skateboarding Park and Street, and Archery events at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, located in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.
SoFi Stadium allows for 38,000 seats for fans, double the size of typical venues used for most Olympic swimming events, according to the New York Times.
"To put one of those big three Olympic sports in a spectacular venue with the capacity we could have to showcase that sport was frankly just too good an opportunity," Casey Wasserman, chairman of the organizing committee, told the Times.
Not every 2028 Olympic venue will be the biggest and newest available. Diving will return to the same pool in Exposition Park that hosted aquatics events in the 1932 Olympic Games. The Coliseum will be the first Olympic venue to host events at three separate Games (1932, 1984, 2024).
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