The measures are cost-cutting measures to avoid building new facilities, something local organizers promised in the spirit of the 1984 Los Angeles Games – which did a minimum of new construction – and in line with International Olympic Committee requirements. to make your Games more accessible. Los Angeles does not have whitewater sports facilities or a swimming pool with a stadium large enough to host Olympic events.
“There is no place [for white-water events] in California or, frankly, in the western United States,” LA 28 president and president Casey Wasserman said Friday in a video call announcing the new locations.
Oklahoma City has what Wasserman called “a premier location” for canoeing at a facility built along the Oklahoma River near downtown. He added that the city’s Devon Park, host of the Women’s College World Series, has undergone extensive renovations, becoming what he called “the best softball venue in the country.”
Oklahoma City’s move is not unprecedented. The surfing competition at this summer’s Paris Olympics will be in Tahiti, and many of the mountain competitions at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games will be in locations four and five hours from Milan. The International Olympic Committee has even discussed relocating of sliding sports out of Italy if a sliding center, under construction near Cortina, is not completed in time.
LA 28 originally planned to host swimming events in a temporary stadium built inside USC’s baseball stadium on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles, but USC wants to renovate the stadium, forcing Games organizers to find a different location. After researching the Los Angeles area, Wasserman said, “We had a lot of fun with the idea of moving it to SoFi.”
A few years ago, such a measure would have been unimaginable, but organizers of this summer’s Paris Olympics are moving swimming to a temporary pool in a two-tier indoor rugby stadium. USA Swimming is holding its Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Wasserman, who will participate in the testing this weekend, said his team has been working with the crews who built the temporary pool in Indianapolis for ideas.
But putting the swimming in SoFi created another logistical problem, as the stadium was also supposed to be the main host of the Opening Ceremonies, sharing duties with the Los Angeles Coliseum near downtown Los Angeles. Typically, swimming takes place during the first week of the Olympics, but with the need to quickly transform SoFi, Wasserman said swimming will change with track and field.
He added that the SoFi pool will be built long before the Olympics begin and will be covered for the Opening Ceremonies.
Wasserman also said kayakers and softball players will be able to attend opening or closing ceremonies so they don’t feel left out of events in Los Angeles while in Oklahoma.
