How long until 2028 Los Angeles Olympics?

When Do the 2028 Olympics Actually Start?

July 14, 2028. That's the Opening Ceremony, and this time it's not one stadium — it's two. LA28 is splitting the ceremony between the LA Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium, which is the kind of flex you can pull off when you've already hosted the Games twice.

Competition actually kicks off two days earlier, on July 12, with basketball, soccer, cricket, field hockey, handball, rugby sevens and water polo getting a head start. The Games close on July 30. Sixteen days, one very packed calendar.

Third Time's the Charm

LA hosted in 1932 and again in 1984. Now it's back for round three — the first US city to host the Summer Games three times. Honestly, at this point LA and the Olympics are basically in a situationship.

What's genuinely different this time: no new permanent venues are being built. Everything runs through existing stadiums and arenas already scattered across Southern California — SoFi Stadium, Dodger Stadium, the Rose Bowl, Intuit Dome, Santa Anita Park, even Venice Beach. Softball and canoe slalom head over 1,000 miles away to Oklahoma City, because apparently that's just how modern Olympics logistics work now.

The Details Worth Knowing

The first medal of the Games goes to triathlon, at Venice Beach — a callback to Sydney 2000. Track and field and swimming have swapped their usual scheduling slots this time around, so if you're used to swimming opening the Games, that's changing. In total, expect 800+ events across 36 sports, with roughly 15,000 athletes competing.

Real talk: a countdown to the Olympics hits different than most. It's not really about the date — it's about watching the best in the world do, on a random Tuesday, what took most of them a literal decade to be able to do at all.

Getting In

Tickets start at $28 (yes, that's the actual pricing gimmick — 28 for 2028), with registration and a ticket draw already underway through LA28.org. Organizers are expecting 12–15 million spectators in person and around 5 billion watching worldwide.

So — July 14, 2028. Circle it, or just let the countdown above do the remembering for you. Either way, LA's about to have main character energy for two straight weeks.