Venice Beach to host LA28 triathlon with athletes running from sand into Pacific
LA28 has unveiled a compact triathlon course that will send athletes sprinting from the sand into the Pacific at Venice Beach, and the women’s individual event on 15 July 2028 will award the first medals of the Games, organisers said on Wednesday. The men’s race is scheduled for 16 July, with the mixed relay set for 20 July.
The route will thread through Venice’s beachfront bike path, neighbouring streets and the Venice Canals before finishing overlooking the coastline, organisers said. The Games’ opening ceremony will take place the day before the women’s triathlon, split between the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. “With less than two years until we host the Games, we’re excited to share more with athletes, fans and our local communities about the dynamic events they will experience in the Venice Beach Zone,” said Shana Ferguson, LA28’s chief of sport and Games delivery officer. “This iconic neighborhood will add another meaningful chapter to its storied history as the first LA28 medals of the 2028 Games are awarded here.”
In a departure from recent Olympic practice, individual races will start on the beach rather than from a pontoon, making this only the second beach start in Olympic triathlon history following the 2016 events at Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach. Competitors will sprint from the sand directly into the Pacific and complete a two-lap 1,500m swim comprising a first 1,000m circuit, a 25m run along the beach and a second 500m swim.
The cycling leg will be a largely flat 40km course made up of eight 5km laps along the Venice bike path and surrounding streets, including two technical turnaround points, organisers said. Riders will pass beneath the neighbourhood’s Venice sign before returning to the central transition area, a configuration described as taking advantage of the area’s forgiving topography to encourage fast racing.
The final discipline is a 10km run formed of four 2.5km laps using portions of the bike path and nearby streets and taking athletes over bridges spanning the Venice Canals to a finish overlooking the Pacific. All three disciplines will be centred on a single transition and finish area where Venice Boulevard meets the sand, a layout organisers say will allow spectators to see athletes repeatedly during the multi-lap contests.
The mixed relay will use a shortened version of the course, with each member of the four-person team completing a 350m swim, 6.6km bike ride and 1.6km run. Para triathletes will race in August, starting from a barge beyond the breakwater rather than the beach and completing a 750m swim followed by a 20km bike leg and 5km run on 18 and 19 August, organisers added.
Venice will also host the starts of the Olympic marathon and cycling road races and the Paralympic marathon, and the venue is due to be tested in a full-scale event next summer when a World Triathlon fixture will be staged there from 16-18 July, giving organisers an opportunity to assess the routes and operations a year before the Games.