Biles and Ledecky for 2028? Home Olympics will be an incentive for veterans of the US team | Olympic Games in LA 2028

TPreparations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games officially began on Sunday evening with a closing ceremony at the Stade de France, which featured Tom Cruise performing a “death-defying stunt” – rappelling from the stadium to collect the Olympic flag before driving through the streets of Paris to LA – and performances by Californian envoys Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Yet for more than a few American athletes, the countdown to LA 2028 began sometime in the last two weeks, after their business here in Paris was done and they began to openly consider their own impossible missions: to extend their careers for a chance to compete in an Olympic Games on home soil when they might otherwise ride off into the sunset.

Like the rest of the world, the senior members of the U.S. Olympic delegation have watched from the front row as Léon Marchand, Teddy Riner, Antoine Dupont and the Lebrun brothers have become figures of national obsession, at a Summer Games where even the too-cool Parisians couldn’t help but get swept up in the excitement. Their exploits over the past two weeks have been obvious even to non-sports fans, their notoriety many times greater than if they had been chasing glory in Tokyo or Rio.

For someone like Katie Ledecky, competing in the LA 28 would be like taking a victory lap in front of a home crowd. The nine-time Olympic champion, who last week became the most decorated U.S. Olympian in any sport, is one of many Americans who have publicly stated they would like to compete in LA, where the swimming program will take place in front of a roaring crowd of 38,000 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, by far the largest swimming pool in Olympic history. She will be 31 then, but after watching her win the women’s 1500m by more than 10 seconds, there is little doubt she would be up to the task.

“When you see the support that the French athletes are getting here, I think all the US athletes are thinking about how cool it would be to have the home crowd in Los Angeles,” she said. “That would be great.”

The same goes for Ryan Crouser, who last week became the first shot putter to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals. He will be 35 when the cauldron is lit at Exposition Park, but could he really pass up the chance to score a historic fourth victory at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home to the 1932 and 1984 Games?

“Right now, I’m enjoying the moment,” Crouser said. “As an American athlete, it would be a dream come true to have the opportunity to hang up my shoes on American soil at the Olympics in my country. That’s a long way away. I don’t know how (silver medalist Joe Kovacs) does it at 35. I feel it at 31. If I can channel my inner Joe, I’d love to go to 2028.”

Simone Biles recently became the oldest Olympic gymnastics champion in 72 years and will be 31 when the Los Angeles Games begin. But it’s not unlikely we’ll see her there in some capacity, perhaps as a specialist, most likely after the same two-year break she took after Rio and Tokyo.

“Never say never,” Biles said this week. “The next Olympics will be on home soil, so you never know.”

Even those with felt-tip pen plans for the future, like 30-year-old fencer Lee Kiefer, who is set to return for her third year of medical school after her fairytale in Paris that ended with her second and third gold medals, acknowledged that missing out on a home-grown Olympics might be too tempting. The temptation might be even greater for those who didn’t realize their dreams, like 29-year-old skateboarder Nyjah Huston, whose bronze in the men’s street final topped a surprise seventh-place finish in Tokyo.

“I have to do my best,” Huston said. “Skateboarding is not easy, we do hard stuff out there, it’s hard on the body. I’m 29 now, I’ve been skating professionally for 18 years and it’s not easy to keep up with these guys.”

Of course, one’s city’s fame is only part of the equation. LA 28 is being flooded with staggering amounts of money and comes in the middle of an eight-year period—#decadeofsport—during which the U.S. will host the Summer and Winter Olympics in addition to the men’s and women’s FIFA World Cups. At a time when it’s increasingly difficult for marketers to find events that appeal to a truly mass audience, brands are increasingly eager to associate themselves with the Olympic movement and sports in general. When President Logan Paul opens Salt Lake City 2034 on a porch at Rice-Eccles Stadium, there will be hundreds of U.S. Olympians who have earned more than they could have imagined from sponsorship deals while devoting their lives to the sport that doesn’t typically make you rich or famous.

LA28 organizers Team USA and Comcast have set an ambitious goal of $2.5 billion in domestic corporate sponsorships, nearly $1 billion more than the revenue from Paris, which exceeded Tokyo’s by 70%. “It’s big and bold, but that’s what we’re about,” LA28 chief commercial officer Chris Pepe told Sportico last year. “We feel really good about where we are today.”

The cocktail of fortune and glory may be too much to pass up for the elder statesmen of the US team, who cannot afford to waste time feeling their age. Those four years will pass faster than you think.