Olympics 2024: Los Angeles 2028 games will take off-field action even further - Editorial

If you host a party, you need to make sure your house is in order and the facilities will be able to handle the expected crowd.

Like any Olympics, the Paris Games have had their fair share of off-field scandals and drama.

Most can be filed under the classic category of one competitor trying to get an advantage over another. The Canadian women’s football team putting up a drone to spy on the Football Ferns sits comfortably alongside their compatriot Ben Johnson infamously juicing up on steroids before the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In 2024, one scandal stands above all others as reflecting poorly on the host city: the state of the River Seine.

Some athletes who swam in the men’s and women’s individual triathlon caught E. coli – that’s an illness you can pick up from coming into contact with human faeces. Kiwi athletes who swam in the river for individual events reported symptoms consistent with the illness before the later relay race.

The French had a duty to provide safe facilities for their guests and, while the games have largely been a great success, the state of the Seine and the illnesses that flowed from it are a reminder of the challenges that hosting a party can bring. Years from now – much like Johnson and Seoul – the Paris 2024 Olympics will be linked to poo in a river.

Los Angeles will host the Olympics in 2028 and, like many of the vast metropolitan areas of the United States, it has many infrastructure and population challenges. Organisers in LA will have been watching Paris and planning how to avoid their own Seine dramas. They will also hope to mimic and improve upon the incredible success of the Paris games away from the sporting field.

Much of the drama and intrigue of these Olympics has played out away from the sports field – often in the arena of social media. The Games’ boundless scope for off-field engagement will surely grow in Los Angeles.

In its opening ceremony, Paris smartly framed itself as a true world city by casting pop-culture figures and sporting icons from around the world in central roles. Canadian singer Celine Dion capped the ceremony, singing beautifully in the rain, after US rapper Snoop Dogg, Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal and Romanian gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci had featured prominently among the torchbearers.

The French should be applauded for their efforts to look beyond their borders in the opening ceremony. It showed great confidence in their culture that they were so comfortable bringing others into the proceedings.

Snoop has been a constant presence in the stands alongside American competitors, while his colleague Flava Flav has been an official cheerleader (and financial sponsor) of the US women’s water polo team.

The interest in those figures throughout the fortnight of Games action underscores how much sports fans are looking for engagement and action away from the actual game. This should play strongly to Los Angeles’ strengths.

The brashest city in the most brash state of the most brash nation, Los Angeles will have a chance to showcase its own confidence in four years’ time. The city must be ready for the challenges that come, too.

Hear it as it happens with live commentary of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on GOLD SPORT & iHeartRadio, plus comprehensive coverage on Newstalk ZB.