Los Angeles Olympic Games to see athletics from start to finish
MONACO/LOS ANGELES – Athletics, for the first time, will span the entire Olympic schedule in Los Angneles in 2028 – starting on day one and running through to the final day of the Games.
The athletics competition will begin on Saturday, July 15, with the women’s 100m taking centre stage on the very first day of Olympic action. All three rounds – including the final – will take place that day, ensuring the Games opens with one of the most electrifying events in sport. The men’s 10,000m and women’s shot put finals will also feature in the opening session, followed by the men’s 100m final on day two.
In total, athletics will be contested across 13 days between July 15-30. In-stadium competition at the LA Memorial Coliseum will run for the first 10 days (15-24 July), before the focus shifts to the road events on July 27, 29 and 30, culminating in the men’s marathon on the final day, with medals presented during the closing ceremony.
Finals will feature in 17 of the 20 sessions, with the schedule carefully crafted to allow the maximum number of potential doubles – such as the 100m and 200m, 200m and 400m (plus relays), 800m and 1500m, 1500m and 5000m, 5000m and 10,000m, plus long jump and triple jump.
This opens the door for the likes of Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden to emulate the heroics of Carl Lewis in 1984, while also enabling middle- and long-distance doubles reminiscent of past Olympic greats.
A new repechage format will provide improved recovery time for athletes – at least 36 hours between round one and repechage in the 400m, and about 24 hours for the 800m and 1500m. The mixed 4x100m relay will also make its Olympic debut, slotted between the 100m and 200m events.
At this stage, it is only the event allocation per session that has been finalised. World Athletics will now work with the LA28 OCOG over the next two and a half years to finalise the detailed timetable.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said: “It is in the spirit of collaboration between World Athletics, LA28, Olympic Broadcasting Services, IOC and NBC as Host Broadcaster that we have landed on an athletics programme that will start with a bang as our women’s sprinters take centre stage on day one and then the men’s sprinters on day two to maximise and sustain global interest after the Opening Ceremony.
“It is a schedule that is both innovative but also honours tradition, with the men’s marathon on the final day, and, with one eye on LA84, athletes can dare to dream to emulate Olympic legends of the past through the compelling proposition of the maximum amount of potential doubles.”
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