The 2024 Paris Olympics are in their final days of competition before closing on August 11. Medals are still being awarded to athletes daily, and the top sports powers are still competing at the top, with thousands of competitions bringing a lively atmosphere to the French capital.
It's only natural to be lively when over 10,500 athletes are competing at the world's largest sports festival, accompanied by millions of fans who have come to Paris during this period.
Paris has become the second city, after London, to host the Summer Olympics three times and exactly 100 years after the last time athletes from around the world flocked to the City of Light.
But before the 2024 Olympics officially end after the closing ceremony on Sunday, Paris will hand over the Olympic torch to which city?
As many people know, Los Angeles will host the next Summer Olympics four years later, following in the footsteps of London and now Paris as a three-time host city.
“The City of Angels” initially competed with Paris to host the 2024 Olympics, but after several withdrawals, they agreed to share the responsibility, with Paris hosting in 2024 and Los Angeles taking on the task in 2028.
LA28, as the event is called, will take place over the last two weeks of July - a change from recent Olympics that have extended into August.
France and the UK have hosted three times, but with LA28, no country has hosted more Summer Olympics than the US. LA28 will be the fifth Olympic Games held in the land of the free and the home of the brave and the first since 1996.
If you include the Winter Olympics, the US will have hosted a total of nine times. Other cities that have hosted include St. Louis (1904 - Summer), Lake Placid (1932 and 1980 - Winter), Squaw Valley (1960 - Winter), Atlanta (1996 - Summer) and Salt Lake (2002 - Winter).
In addition to traditional sports, the question is whether LA28 will have any new sports.
Since the 2020 Olympics, the Summer Olympics have allowed for a maximum of six optional sports to be added to the core events such as track and field, swimming, and gymnastics.
The 2028 Olympics are expected to have at least 35 sports, including flag football - a variant of American football, and pickleball, which are two new sports.
Although not the first time they have appeared at the Olympics, baseball, cricket, and lacrosse (lacrosse) are also being added to the list - the latter two for the first time since 1900 and 1908.
After Los Angeles 2028, the next schedule has already been set for the next events in 2032. According to this, Milan (Italy) is expected to host the next Winter Olympics in 2026, while Brisbane (Australia) has been designated as the host city for the 2032 Summer Olympics.
This will be the first time in three decades that Australia has hosted the Olympics and the third time overall, after Sydney 2000 and Melbourne 1956.
LA28 organizers estimate that Los Angeles will need an additional 2,700 buses to transport spectators and athletes, doubling the current fleet of Metro. Metro reports that it will need around $700 million to $1 billion to cover the costs.
In April 2019, the estimated cost of LA28 was $6.88 billion, all of which came from private sources.
LA28 is expected to generate $2.5 billion through sponsorships and nearly $2 billion through ticket sales.
