With Only 114 Days for Paris Olympics, LA Mayor Faces Uphill Battle Preparing for 2028’s Olympic Cycle: ‘We Need To Get Far More Involved’

Published 04/03/2024, 9:30 AM EDT

With only 114 days remaining until the highly anticipated Paris Olympics, the City of Love is gearing up with significant measures, facilities, and innovations to ensure that the 2024 Olympics are a groundbreaking spectacle. From the Eco-Friendly Olympic and Paralympic Village to boosting public transport, implementing high-tech security measures, revamping venues, cleaning the Seine River, and much more, Paris is committing $10 billion to the endeavor.

As the French capital spares no expense to make Paris 2024 “games wide open,” Hollywood, Los Angeles, is gearing up for the 2028 Olympics. While initially aiming for ambitious plans by 2028, Paris’s strategies have spurred a newfound urgency and awareness in Los Angeles. The LA Mayor now confronts significant challenges in preparing the city for the 2028 Olympic cycle.

How the Paris Olympics preparation has inspired the Mayor of Los Angeles

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According to The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles is realizing the steep financial costs associated with hosting the 2028 Olympics, especially concerning transportation. Mayor Karen Bass’s recent visit to Paris has highlighted the magnitude of the task ahead for Los Angeles. She shared, “It put fire under us to realize that we need to get far more involved in Olympic preparation and all that it might mean.” The success and challenges faced by Paris in hosting the upcoming Olympics have motivated Los Angeles officials to become more deeply involved in Olympic preparation.

Plans for building rail lines have been abandoned, and there’s concern about how to fund the operation of buses during the Games, which could cost over $1 billion. One major unresolved issue is determining who will fund visitors’ bus transportation during the “car-free games” in Los Angeles.

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The mountain ahead of challenges for LA28

Los Angeles is looking to the federal government for financial assistance, similar to how Paris leaned on its federal government for the Paris Olympics. Organizers are confident that federal funding will cover the cost of additional buses needed for transportation during the Games. Initially, ambitious goals set by former Mayor Eric Garcetti, like “28 by ’28,” aimed to complete transportation projects pre-Games. However, these plans encountered hurdles, with Metro struggling to secure the necessary funding for extra bus services, particularly for mechanics and driver training.

Despite setbacks in initial plans, there’s optimism that improvements made for the Olympics could benefit the city’s transportation system in the long term. Procuring enough buses to run a secondary transportation system for the Games is a daunting task. Metro is seeking additional funding from the Biden administration and negotiations are ongoing between Metro and the organizing committee to sort out issues such as advertising revenues and increased city services during the Games.

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The city has promised to provide enhanced resources, including police, fire, sanitation, traffic, and parking control services, during the competition. As Paris tackled mounting challenges to organize the international event, the question remains: Can Los Angeles achieve the same? Comment below!

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Written by:

Christaline Meyers is a senior Olympics writer at EssentiallySports who specializes in gymnastics and alpine skiing. Christaline is one of the acclaimed authorities in the coverage of 6x All-Around champion, Simone Biles. She has written extensively, covering every detail of Biles’s life stories as well as providing her perspective on Simone Biles’ Yurchenko Double Pike controversy.

Edited by:

Himanshu Sridhar

With Only 114 Days for Paris Olympics, LA Mayor Faces Uphill Battle Preparing for 2028’s Olympic Cycle: ‘We Need To Get Far More Involved’

How the Paris Olympics preparation has inspired the Mayor of Los Angeles

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The mountain ahead of challenges for LA28