The move is a cost-saving measure to avoid having to build new facilities and is in line with the International Olympic Committee’s request to host the Games at a more affordable cost, in the spirit of the minimal new construction of the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Los Angeles does not have a whitewater sports facility or a swimming pool with a stadium large enough to host Olympic events.
“There are no existing venues [for white-water events] “This new venue will be the first of its kind in California, or frankly in the Western U.S.,” LA28 Chairman and President Casey Wasserman said Friday in a video call announcing the new venue. “This new venue will be the first of its kind in California, or frankly in the Western U.S..”
Oklahoma City has a facility built along the Oklahoma River adjacent to downtown that Wasserman called “the premier venue for canoeing,” and he added that the city’s Devon Park, home of the Women’s College World Series, has undergone extensive renovations to become “the best softball venue in the country.”
A move to Oklahoma City wouldn’t be unprecedented: The surfing events at this summer’s Paris Olympics will be held in Tahiti, and many of the mountaineering events at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will take place four to five hours outside of Milan. The International Olympic Committee is even considering moving sliding out of Italy if a sliding center under construction near Cortina isn’t completed on time.
LA 28 originally planned to hold swimming events in a temporary stadium built inside USC’s baseball field on the edge of downtown Los Angeles, but USC wanted to renovate the stadium, forcing tournament organizers to find another venue. After searching around Los Angeles, Wasserman said, “we came up with this really fun idea of relocating to SoFi.”
In a move that would have been unimaginable a few years ago, organizers of the Paris Olympics this summer plan to host swimming events in a temporary pool built in a two-story indoor rugby stadium. USA Swimming will hold the Olympic trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Wasserman, who will be attending the trials this weekend, said his staff has been tossing ideas around with the workers who built the Indianapolis temporary pool.
But holding swimming events at SoFi created another logistical problem: The stadium will share the role with the Los Angeles Coliseum near downtown Los Angeles and will also be the main venue for the opening ceremonies. Swimming events typically take place during the first week of the Olympics, but because SoFi needs to transform so quickly, Wasserman said swimming will be swapped for track and field.
He added that the SoFi Pool will be built well before the Olympics begin and will be covered during the opening ceremonies.
Wasserman also said the canoeists and softball players will be able to attend either the opening or closing ceremonies so they won’t feel left out of the events in Los Angeles while they’re in Oklahoma.
