Two Years and Counting
Los Angeles marked two years out from the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games this week with organizers declaring the event no longer a “someday” prospect but an active countdown, as LA28 confirmed a wave of new milestones including ticket sales windows and the opening of volunteer applications. The Games, running from 14 to 30 July 2028, will mark the third time Los Angeles has hosted the Summer Olympics, and organizers say the planning operation has grown from roughly 120 staff when the bid was won to more than 700 today, with a target of 5,000 by the time the Games begin.
Volunteers Wanted
LA28 announced that its Games-time volunteer application portal will open on 14 July 2026, kicking off the process of assembling a volunteer crew expected to number around 60,000 people, a workforce organizers describe as essential to the day-to-day running of venues, transport and athlete services across the sprawling Los Angeles region. The scale of the volunteer program reflects the logistical complexity of a Games spread across a metropolitan area rather than a single compact host city.
Tickets Start Moving
Fans hoping to attend will get their first real opportunity soon, with a Visa presale window running from 29 to 31 July 2026, followed by a second ticket drop from 10 to 20 August. Registration for both windows is open to fans regardless of where they live, a deliberate move by organizers to build global demand well ahead of the Games rather than relying solely on the domestic market.
Building on Recent Momentum
The countdown milestones land at a moment when several LA28-adjacent sports storylines are already in motion, including the reversal of a controversial surfing qualification decision and the ongoing push to bring cricket back to the Olympic program for the first time in over a century, with India among the nations already qualified. Gymnast Rebeca Andrade has also spoken publicly about her own plans to compete at LA28, rather than retire after Milano Cortina and Tokyo, a sign that some of the sport’s biggest names are already building their schedules around the Los Angeles Games.
What Comes Next
With two years still to go, LA28 organizers say the next milestones on the calendar include finalizing venue plans and continuing to expand the paid staff and volunteer base. For a Games that will lean heavily on existing Los Angeles infrastructure rather than new construction, officials have repeatedly framed the coming two years as being about operational readiness rather than building work, a pitch they hope will differentiate LA28 from recent, more construction-heavy editions of the Games.
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