AUSTIN (KXAN) — As the 2024 Paris Olympics wrap up Sunday, the closing ceremony marks the official handoff from the City of Light to Los Angeles — and for some sports — Oklahoma City.
Competitions for softball and the canoe slalom program will be held more than 1,300 miles from the host city in OKC because the Los Angeles area lacks proper facilities, LA28 organizers said.
Devon Park will host softball’s return to the Olympics while the McClendon Whitewater Center is the site for the canoe slalom event. Organizers said both venues are “world-class” and ensure a “high-quality experience for athletes and fans while allowing LA28 to realize cost savings and revenue gains to support its balanced budget.”
The largest softball venue in the Los Angeles area, Easton Stadium on the UCLA campus, seats around 1,300 people, making it unsuitable to “meet expected spectator demand,” LA28 organizers said. Since organizers don’t want to build any new facilities for the Games, having the tournament at the site of the Women’s College World Series and international softball events was always the plan.
The same goes with the McClendon Whitewater Center. It’s where Team USA trains for international competitions and it was the site of the U.S. Olympic team trials for canoe slalom before the Paris Olympics. The LA28 committee said there isn’t a canoe slalom venue fit for international competition in the western U.S., let alone the Los Angeles area.
The canoe sprint events will be held at Marine Stadium in Long Beach, California with the slalom and kayak cross events in OKC. Canoeing has been part of the Olympics regularly since 1992.
This will be softball’s sixth time as part of the Olympics, most recently at the 2020 Tokyo Games (held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) at retrofitted baseball stadiums. Japan beat the U.S. for the gold medal while Canada won the bronze.
It will be the first time since the 2008 Beijing Games that the softball tournament will be held on a field specifically designed for softball. There’s a push to keep softball in the Olympic program for the 2032 Games in Brisbane, Australia.