With the LA 2028 Olympics just three years away, news–and rumors–about those Games is starting to fly fast and furious, but not always entirely true. The International Olympic Committee is meeting this week in Greece for its 144th Session. This is no ordinary junket: for only the tenth time in its 130-year history, the IOC will be electing a new president. Ahead of the election, membership hears reports from future Games hosts, but that doesn’t stop pundits from speculating. Let’s rank fact versus fiction on some of the bigger stories.
The 2028 Summer Olympics is Moving from LA
Ranking: Fiction
The political landscape in the United States is *complicated* right now. Some Republicans and members of the Trump Administration have expressed a desire to move the 2028 Summer Olympics out of solidly-blue Los Angeles and to a city and state more in line with its political agenda. In addition, wildfires have devastated wide swaths of Southern California.
First of all, the US does not own the 2028 Summer Olympics and cannot simply move things around like pieces on a chess board. The host agreement between the IOC and the organizers is detailed and precise. The host cannot change a venue for a sport, never mind moving wholesale to another location across the country, without the say so from the IOC. Second, no city could jump in at this late date to host an event as big and complicated as a Summer Olympics. LA has had years to work on it, nearly a decade. An Olympic host city has only changed once in peacetime after it was awarded (the Winter Games in 1976) and that was at the request of the host city. For the IOC, unsavory politics in the host country is not a reason the relocate (see: Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022.)
None of the venues were directly damaged in the wildfires. Infrastructure and surrounding neighborhoods were devastated and that could prove challenging to LA28 organizers but they remain positive. “There is no reason to believe that the fires will adversely impact or delay preparations for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Paul Kerkorian, executive director of the Los Angeles’s new Office of Major Events, said in a statement.
Countries Are Planning to Boycott LA28
Rating: Fiction (for now)
The last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics, in 1984, was also the last time the Olympics faced a major boycott. The Soviet Union and their Eastern bloc allies stayed home in retaliation for the American-led boycott of Moscow 1980. History has shown that when politicians decide to keep the athletes out of the Games, the athletes suffer and the politics don’t change.
So far, calls for a boycott of the next Summer Olympics has been limited to social media posts, letters to the editor, and change.org petitions. No international officials have floated serious proposals to keep their athletes out of the competition, though politicians love to throw around the threats of a boycott. Let’s hope it stays as a threat, not reality.
Boxing Is Back for 2028
Rating: Fact (we hope)
When LA28 released the sport program for the Olympics, boxing was left out in the cold. International sport federations, like World Athletics or the International Tennis Federation, organize the Olympic competitions. After years of mismanagement, corruption, and scandals, the International Boxing Association (AIBA, then IBA) lost its recognition from the IOC. They have not gone quietly.
During the Paris Olympics last summer, the IBA fed the controversy surrounding Imane Khelif. IBA has accused the IOC of trying to destroy the IBA through “intimidation and threats.” IBA threatened national boxing federations with financial penalties and sanctions if the national federations chose to align themselves with World Boxing, a new international federation organized to replace IBA.
After all that, the IOC had had enough. Last year, the IOC provided provisional recognition to a new international federation, World Boxing. The Executive Committee of the IOC agreed to return boxing the LA28 program earlier this month. The full membership of the IOC will vote on the resolution this week and experts expect it to pass easily.
Russians Will Be Back for 2026
Rating: TBD
The relationship between Russia and the Olympics is complicated (never mind the situation at the Paralympics.) Russia first faced sanctions for its state-sponsored doping program.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, it broke the Olympic Truce, which bans all military action during the time of the Olympics and Paralympics. For violating the Olympic Charter, the IOC banned the Russian Olympic Committee in 2023. The International Paralympic Committee also suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee. Russian athletes could only compete in individual events as neutral athletes in Paris 2024. Athletes from Russian-ally Belarus faced the same consequences.
With less than a year to go until the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Milano-Cortina 2026, what is happening with Russian athletes? The IOC has not made an official announcement; this will likely be one of the first items for the new president. Russian athletes face an additional hurdle: qualifying. Many sports federations, including the International Ski Federation and the International Biathlon Union, continue to ban Russians and Belarusians from competing in any of their events in the 2024-25 season.
If athletes cannot compete, they cannot earn quota spots or direct places in Olympic competitions for the following year. The International Skating Union announced limited options for Russian figure skaters, speed skaters, and short track skaters to compete at Olympic qualifiers. These events begin in September so we will have to wait to see what comes of that.
So that’s the update for now. What burning questions from the Olympic or Paralympic world do you want us to fact-check next? Let us know!
–Alison Brown