The move was a cost-saving measure to avoid having to build new facilities, in keeping with the spirit of the 1984 Los Angeles Games, which had minimal new construction, and in keeping with the International Olympic Committee’s demands for a cheaper 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.”
The move to Oklahoma City is not unprecedented. Surfing at this summer’s Paris Olympics is Tahiti, Many of the mountain events at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics place It’s four to five hours from Milan, and the International Olympic Committee is considering moving the sliding events outside Italy if a sliding centre 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 just a few years ago, organizers of the Paris Olympics this summer plan to hold swimming events in a temporary pool in a two-tiered indoor stadium. Rugby StadiumUSA Swimming will host the Olympic trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis this weekend, and Wasserman, who will be attending the trials, said his staff has been working on ideas with the workers who built the temporary pool in Indianapolis.
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.