LA28 Olympics competition schedule published for all events

LA28 has published a detailed daily competition schedule for the first Summer Olympics to be held in the U.S. since 1996.

The schedule, subject to change, includes specific session times for the largest Games ever — 351 medal events.

As previously announced, action starts on Wednesday, July 12, 2028 -- two days before the Opening Ceremony, as usual -- with preliminary competition in basketball, cricket, field hockey, handball, rugby sevens, soccer and water polo.

On July 14, the day of the Opening Ceremony (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT), one sport will have competition. Canoe slalom will be held at the Oklahoma City Whitewater Center. Softball will also be held in Oklahoma City in the second week of the Games — at Devon Park, the annual host of the NCAA Women’s College World Series.

On July 15, the first medals of the Games will be awarded in women’s triathlon, which will be held along Venice Beach.

Later that evening, the first track and field finals will be the women’s shot put, men’s 10,000m and women’s 100m. All four rounds of the women’s 100m will be held on that Saturday, including a preliminary round that’s traditionally for lower-ranked sprinters only. The men’s 100m final will be the following evening.

The women’s 400m and women’s 400m hurdles finals are in the same session, which would make it difficulty for a potential Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone double in both events.

Track and field and swimming will switch places from their traditional spots in the Olympic schedule — track and field in the first week for 2028 and swimming in the second week.

The switch will aid SoFi Stadium’s transition from co-hosting the Opening Ceremony with the Coliseum to becoming the first NFL stadium to host Olympic swimming starting July 22.

The women’s 200m butterfly and women’s 800m freestyle finals are in the same session, making a potential double difficult for Canada’s Summer McIntosh. In 2024, the women’s 200m individual medley and 800m free were in the same session. McIntosh swam the 200m IM (and won it) and did not contest the 800m free.

McIntosh is the reigning Olympic and world champion in the 200m fly, and the second-fastest woman in history in the event. This past August, she did swim the 800m free at the World Championships and took bronze behind Katie Ledecky — the four-time Olympic gold medalist in the event — and Australian Lani Pallister.

McIntosh has said she wants to swim five individual events at the 2028 LA Games, up from her four in 2024. If she doesn’t swim the 800m free, she could swim the 200m free along with both IMs and the 200m fly without having to swim twice individually in any session.

Swimming is slated to host the final medal events of the Games on Sunday, July 30 between 3-4:30 p.m. local time before the Closing Ceremony at 6 p.m.

As usual, the team and all-around finals in gymnastics are in the first week of the Games. The new mixed team event will be the last artistic gymnastics event on Tuesday, July 25. The format for that event has not been announced.

The marathons will still be held on the last weekend of the Games, keeping with tradition.

Flag football, which makes its Olympic debut, will be in the first week from July 15-22. If NFL players take part, having that competition early could be helpful given NFL preseason training camps typically open in mid-to-late July with preseason games ramping up in early August.

Baseball, which returns to the Games, will also be early in the schedule from July 13-19 at Dodger Stadium (which hosted baseball as a demonstration sport at the 1984 LA Games).

Though Major League Baseball has not yet decided whether to allow active big leaguers to participate in the Olympics for the first time, note that the MLB All-Star breaks the past five seasons have been: July 12-14, 18-20, 10-13, 15-18 and 14-17.

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