The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles are sporting a twist: not all events are happening in California—or even in the same time zone. While some competitions will sprawl across Southern California, from soccer in Pasadena to volleyball in Anaheim, two sports are making a 1,300-mile leap to Oklahoma City, the New York Times reports. That's where fans will find canoe slalom and softball.
This unexpected arrangement isn't just a logistical quirk; it's a budget strategy. Los Angeles, eyeing a "no-build" Olympics amid budget woes and post-wildfire recovery, opted against constructing new venues. Instead, the city is outsourcing the games for these two sports to OKC, which already boasts the necessary facilities—saving LA officials what they say would have been a "massive" expense.
The partnership comes with a dose of political symbolism. Los Angeles, run by a Democrat in a deep-blue state, is teaming up with Republican-led Oklahoma City. For LA Mayor Karen Bass, the collaboration is "so consistent with the Olympic spirit," especially "given the polarization in our country right now." Her counterpart, Mayor David Holt, called Bass a friend, handed over a key to the city, and said there is "more that brings us together than divides us" during Bass' visit to his city last week—her first time there, KOCO reports.
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"We have the best softball stadium in the world, there's no debate about that," Holt tells the Oklahoman: Devon Park is, by two and a half times, the world's biggest softball stadium and the yearly host of the Women's College World Series. Olympic events held at satellite sites aren't new. In 2024, Paris sent surfing nearly 10,000 miles away to Tahiti. LA's own 1984 Olympics farmed out soccer matches as far as Boston.
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