Track & Field at the
2028 Summer Games

Overview

Athletics — the collective term for track and field events — is the oldest discipline in the modern Summer Games program. When Los Angeles hosts the Games in 2028, track and field will be staged at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, the same venue used for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The athletics program at a Summer Games typically spans ten days, with morning heats and evening finals sessions running across the latter half of the Games calendar. Evening finals sessions are where the most significant competitions take place: sprint finals, relay finals, field event finals, and multi-event finals. These sessions consistently draw the largest crowds of any event on the program.

The United States has a deep history in track and field at the Summer Games. American athletes have dominated the sprint events in particular across multiple decades, and the relay programs have been among the most nationally significant competitions in the sport. At a home Games in Los Angeles, US participation across the events will drive domestic interest to levels the program has not seen since the 1984 Games.

Sessions & Program Structure

The athletics program at a Summer Games produces more gold medal events than any other single sport. Sessions are divided between morning heats — where qualification takes place — and evening finals, where gold medals are decided. The most attended sessions are the evening finals in the second half of the athletics program, when sprint events and relay finals are concentrated.

The following events are the most historically significant and highest-attended sessions in the athletics program:

Venue: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood

Track and field at the 2028 Summer Games is held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The stadium opened in September 2020 as the home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers and is widely considered the most advanced stadium built in the United States in the modern era. For the 2028 Games, SoFi hosts the Opening Ceremony, Closing Ceremony, and the entire athletics program.

SoFi Stadium vs. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Track and field at the 2028 Games moves from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — which hosted both prior LA editions in 1932 and 1984 — to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. The shift represents a significant upgrade in venue modernity and capacity. SoFi offers a fully enclosed translucent roof structure that provides shade while maintaining an open-air feel, superior sightlines across all seating levels, and premium facility infrastructure substantially beyond what the Coliseum provided. At 70,000 seats, it is also larger than the Coliseum’s current configuration.

Getting to SoFi Stadium

SoFi Stadium is served by the Metro K Line (Crenshaw/LAX Line), which connects directly to LAX and to Downtown Los Angeles via a transfer at Crenshaw station. By car from LAX, the stadium is approximately 15 minutes with typical traffic. Groups staying in Downtown Los Angeles should plan for 20 to 30 minutes by car depending on traffic conditions. Inglewood has limited hotel inventory immediately adjacent to SoFi, which typically fills quickly for major events. El Segundo and Manhattan Beach, south of the airport, are practical alternatives within 15 to 20 minutes of the stadium.

Track & Field at the Summer Games: History

Athletics has been part of every modern Summer Games since Athens in 1896. The program has expanded significantly from its origins — the 1896 Games included 12 athletics events contested entirely by men, while the modern program exceeds 48 events across the men’s and women’s disciplines. Women’s athletics events were introduced at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.

The United States dominated track and field through the early decades of the modern Games. Jesse Owens’s four-gold performance at the 1936 Berlin Games — in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and 4×100m relay — remains one of the most significant single-athlete achievements in the history of the sport. At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, Carl Lewis replicated that four-gold haul across the same four events, becoming the defining athlete of his era.

The 1990s and 2000s saw track and field’s international base broaden substantially. Jamaica’s emergence as a sprint power — anchored by Usain Bolt’s performances at Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016 — shifted the center of gravity in the sprint events away from the United States for the first time in decades. Kenya and Ethiopia continued their dominance in the distance events, a pattern that has held since the 1960s.

Recent Summer Games Champions

Notable Athletes in Summer Games History

Historic Moments

Jesse Owens at Berlin 1936

Owens’s four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games remain the most politically resonant performance in track and field history. His wins in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and relay directly contradicted the racial ideology the Games were intended to showcase. No athlete before or since has dominated a single Games to comparable effect in both sporting and historical terms.

Carl Lewis at Los Angeles 1984

Lewis’s four-gold performance at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — matching Owens’s haul exactly — established him as the defining athlete of his generation and gave the 1984 Games one of its central narratives. His long jump that year was so dominant that he declined his final attempts after securing gold, a decision that drew criticism from the crowd but reflected his calculated approach to competition.

The 1968 Black Power Salute

At the Mexico City Games, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos — gold and bronze medalists in the 200m — raised gloved fists on the medal podium during the national anthem, in a gesture of solidarity with the civil rights movement. The image became one of the most reproduced photographs in sports history and remains a defining moment in the relationship between athletics and political expression.

Usain Bolt at Beijing 2008

Bolt’s 100m final at the 2008 Beijing Games produced what is still considered the most remarkable sprint performance in history. He ran 9.69 seconds while visibly easing up before the line and celebrating — a time that broke the world record by 0.03 seconds. The performance fundamentally changed expectations for what was possible in the sprint events.

Noah Lyles at Paris 2024

The 100m final at the 2024 Paris Games produced one of the closest in the event’s history. Lyles of the United States won by five thousandths of a second over Kishane Thompson of Jamaica — a margin so small it required photo finish technology to determine.

Los Angeles Olympic History

Los Angeles has hosted the Summer Games twice before 2028 — in 1932 and 1984 — and is one of only three cities to have hosted the Games three times, alongside London and Paris.

Los Angeles 1932

The 1932 Games were held during the Great Depression, which significantly reduced international participation, with 37 countries sending athletes compared to 46 at the 1928 Games. The Games introduced several innovations that persist in the modern program: automatic timing was used for the first time, as was the photo finish camera, and the victory podium for medal ceremonies made its debut. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum served as the athletics venue and became the first purpose-built Games athletics venue in the United States.

Los Angeles 1984

The 1984 Games are remembered as among the most commercially successful in history and as the edition that established the modern model of corporate sponsorship for the Games. Attendance across all sports exceeded 5.7 million — the highest of any Summer Games to that point — and the athletics program at the Coliseum was sold out across the majority of its sessions. Carl Lewis’s four golds anchored the track and field narrative, but the Games also produced significant performances from Edwin Moses in the 400m hurdles, Joan Benoit in the inaugural women’s marathon, and Daley Thompson in the decathlon.

Los Angeles 2028

The 2028 Games represent the first US-hosted Summer Games since Atlanta 1996 and the first return of the Games to Los Angeles since 1984. The venue infrastructure relies heavily on existing facilities rather than purpose-built construction — a model LA28 has positioned as a template for cost-controlled Games delivery. Track and field moves to SoFi Stadium, representing a significant upgrade from the Memorial Coliseum in terms of venue modernity, premium infrastructure, and capacity.

What to Expect at LA 2028

The 2028 Games is the first US-hosted Summer Games since Atlanta 1996 and the first in Los Angeles since 1984. Track and field will sit at the center of domestic commercial and competitive interest, anchored by a strong US medal program and a home crowd at SoFi Stadium.

US Participation

American athletes are expected to be strong contenders across the sprint events, relays, field events, and middle distance. The 2024 Paris Games produced significant US results including Noah Lyles in the 100m, Gabrielle Thomas in the 200m, Cole Hocker in the 1500m, and US relay golds in the women’s 4×100m and 4×400m. The home crowd at SoFi Stadium — 70,000 predominantly American fans — is expected to be a significant atmospheric factor across US-contending events.

International Competition

Jamaica will remain competitive across the sprint events, with the depth of the program having deepened significantly since Bolt’s retirement. Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia will be dominant in the distance events, where East African programs have maintained near-total dominance since the 1960s. European programs have grown increasingly competitive across the middle distance and field events, with Norway, Germany, and Great Britain producing consistent medal-level performances at recent Games.

Frequently Asked Questions

Other Sports at LA 2028

Track and field is one of 32 sports on the 2028 program. Individual sport guides for LA 2028 are listed below.