World Athletics president Lord Coe is looking forward to his sport kicking off the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 “with a bang” as track and field takes centre stage in the opening week of the Games.
Athletics events, which usually take place in the second week of the Games, are swapping with swimming, which instead will be dropped back to the second week of the fortnight.
And the immediate highlight will be the women’s 100 metres champion being crowned on the first official day of competition.
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The women’s sprint will open the athletics schedule at the LA Memorial Coliseum on July 15, with all three rounds taking place that day, while the men’s 100m final will follow on day two.
Sprinters normally run a maximum of two races in a day at a major event. The women’s field, which could include the last two world champions Sha’Carri Richardson and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Olympic champ Julien Alfred, now have three years to prepare for this demanding new challenge.
The Games competition schedule was published on Wednesday, with the first medal event to be decided being the women’s triathlon.
Coe said: “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.”
British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith declared: “It will be an honour for the women’s 100m to open the LA Games. It’s such an exciting opportunity — celebrating enduring legacy, strength and global power of women’s sprinting, exactly 100 years on from the first time women competed in Olympic track and field.
“Can’t wait to set the tone for what will be a thrilling and spectacular Games.”
Swimming has traditionally kicked off Summer Games, but because the opening ceremony is taking place at SoFi Stadium, same as the swim meet, organisers decided to make the swap. It was not feasible to set up the pool in the stadium so quickly after the ceremony.
Janet Evans, who won four Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1992 and is chief athlete officer for the LA Games, said the prospect of swimming in what is largely considered LA’s best new stadium in front of 38,000 fans is an opportunity her sport embraced.
Also, it will give swimmers a chance to get to the opening ceremony — a treat they’ve often had to forgo because their events start the very next day.
“I could probably name on my two hands the swimmers I know who have actually been to opening ceremonies,” Evans said.
One big disappointment for home fans, though, could be that the schedule has made it virtually impossible for their top athletics star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to try to double in both the women’s 400m and 400m hurdles.
McLaughlin-Levrone is the world-record holder and two-time defending champion in the hurdles, and this year ran the second fastest 400m ever in winning the one-lap event at the Tokyo World Championships.
Her coach, Bobby Kersee, had hinted she might double up in LA, but the 400m hurdles semi-finals and 400m final are each scheduled for July 20.
