Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove held a planning meeting with members of L.A. County’s congressional delegation last week as the city prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics (LA28) — and USC is preparing to play a significant role in those Olympic Games.
USC’s involvement in the Olympics typically comes from Trojan athletes representing their home countries in competition. USC would rank 14 in all-time medals if the school were its own country, according to USC Today.
However, this time around, the school’s role in the 2028 Summer Olympics will look a little different. With a location central to Greater Los Angeles, the University Park campus will host various parts of the 2028 Games.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home of the USC Trojans football team, as well as the Galen Center, will host various athletic competitions.
The Coliseum was used in both the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games. It will host the Olympic track and field competitions, as well as the opening ceremony in 2028, as it did in its previous two Olympics. It will become the first venue in history to host the track and field events and opening ceremony in three Olympic games, according to the LA28 website.
The Coliseum is owned by the State of California’s Sixth District Agricultural Association, Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles. The venue is operated and managed by USC Auxiliary Services.
USC’s Galen Center, the home of the USC Trojans basketball and volleyball teams, will host badminton during the 2028 Games.
Parts of USC’s campus will serve as the Olympic Media Village, providing accommodations for all accredited media personnel covering the Olympic games. USC has not yet announced exactly which buildings will house media personnel.
USC’s venues contribute to what will be the first time no new permanent venues are constructed for an Olympic Game.
“I think this is absolutely huge, but what happens to students working or living on campus [that summer]?” said sophomore mathematics major Naveen Prabhath. “It seems like an inconvenience for the people actually at SC over the summer.”
USC’s plethora of athletic-based construction sites throughout the past several months are not to be confused with the university’s role in the upcoming Olympics. Three building zones at the school are a part of USC Athletics’ push for new training and competition facilities for various athletic programs at the university, called Athletics West.
The Athletics West capital projects include the construction of the new Bloom Football Performance Center and the transformation of the Trojans’ baseball facilities at Dedeaux Field. The construction on Hoover Street is for the building of Rawlinson Stadium, a new women’s soccer and lacrosse facility, according to USC Today.
While a temporary venue at Dedeaux Field was previously slated to host swimming for LA28, the Los Angeles City Council approved the relocation of swimming events to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on March 28.
Beyond hosting Olympic events, USC is working with LA28 in other ways.
Last year, the USC Race and Equity Center announced a collaboration with the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The aim of the collaboration is to “design a series of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) workshops in preparation for welcoming the world to Los Angeles in 2028,” according to the 2028 Olympics’ website.
With demands by the Trump administration to dismantle DEI in educational settings, the future of student centers such as the USC Race and Equity Center and the impacts on its partnership with LA28 are uncertain.
“While things are always changing, including how we manage our partnership with LA28, we are continuing to work in a revised partnership focused on leadership and communication development,” said a representative from the USC Race and Equity Center.
Despite losing host to swimming for the 2028 Olympics, between badminton, track and field, the opening ceremony and the media village, USC will nonetheless play a large role in various parts of the 2028 Olympic Games.