Girls’s 100m to kick-start LA28 with athletics to cowl whole Games interval | PRESS-RELEASES

The competitors schedule for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, printed immediately, confirms that for the primary time in historical past, athletics will span the complete Olympic interval – beginning on day one and operating via to the ultimate day of the Games.

The athletics competitors will start with a bang on Saturday 15 July 2028, as the ladies’s 100m takes centre stage on the very first day of Olympic motion. All three rounds – together with the ultimate – will happen that day, making certain the Games opens with one of the crucial electrifying occasions in sport. The males’s 10,000m and girls’s shot put finals will even characteristic within the opening session, adopted by the boys’s 100m remaining on day two.

In complete, athletics might be contested throughout 13 days between 15-30 July 2028. In-stadium competitors on the iconic LA Memorial Coliseum will run for the primary 10 days (15-24 July), earlier than the main focus shifts to the street occasions on 27, 29 and 30 July – culminating within the males’s marathon on the ultimate day, with medals introduced throughout the closing ceremony.

Finals will characteristic in 17 of the 20 periods, with the schedule fastidiously crafted to permit the utmost variety of potential doubles – such because the 100m & 200m, 200m & 400m (plus relays), 800m & 1500m, 1500m & 5000m, 5000m & 10,000m, and lengthy soar & triple soar. This opens the door for stars comparable to Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden to emulate the heroics of LA 1984 Olympic legend Carl Lewis, whereas additionally enabling middle- and long-distance doubles harking back to previous Olympic greats.

A brand new repechage format will present improved restoration time for athletes – a minimum of 36 hours between spherical one and repechage within the 400m, and about 24 hours for the 800m and 1500m. The combined 4x100m relay will even make its Olympic debut, slotted between the 100m and 200m occasions.

At this stage, it’s only the occasion allocation per session that has been finalised. World Athletics will now work with the LA28 OCOG over the subsequent 2.5 years to finalise the detailed timetable.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe mentioned: “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.”

World and Olympic gold medallist Sha’Carri Richardson mentioned: “Track and field is having its moment, and the road to LA28 is about to be something special, especially for the women’s sprints. The talent, energy, and competition … it’s all going to shine. Just look at day one of the LA Games. I’m locked in on accomplishing some personal goals and doing my part to help the sport keep growing and inspiring the next generation at home in the USA and across the globe.”

World gold and Olympic silver medallist Dina Asher-Smith mentioned: “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!”

“This is Olympic innovation at its best,” mentioned Shana Ferguson, LA28 Chief of Sport and Games Delivery Officer. “By collaborating with World Athletics and listening on to their athlete group, we’ve created one thing unprecedented with the ladies’s 100m. We are thrilled to showcase the quickest ladies on the planet on day one, permitting them to encourage a world viewers initially of probably the most complete Olympic sport programme in historical past.”

The LA 2028 Olympic Games will happen from 14-30 July 2028, that includes greater than 10,000 athletes from about 200 nations competing in 35 sports activities. It will mark the third time Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics, following the 1932 and 1984 Games.

World Athletics