The Olympic flag is coming back to Los Angeles ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games, and will be personally delivered by Mayor Karen Bass when she returns from Paris.
Former L.A. City Councilmember Joe Buscaino told KNX News’ Craig Fiegener how the Paris Games and the LA28 games are very similar in terms of event deployment. He explained events in Paris are within 15 square miles and in L.A., events will be within 12 to 15 square miles.
“When we bring that Olympic flag on that Delta flight back home, it's going to be more real that the Olympics, the IOC, the world will be watching how we prepare and get ready for the Olympic Games,” he said.
Upon her arrival at LAX at about 2:30 p.m., Bass will host a news conference to showcase the flag with LA28. She will also travel to Paris again for the Paralympic Games from Sept. 6-8.
Bass received the official Olympic flag at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics. After she received the flag, H.E.R. performed the U.S. national anthem, then actor Tom Cruise descended onto the field from the top of Stade de France via cables and carried the flag out of the stadium on a motorcycle to begin its journey to L.A.
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Cruise was then shown riding through the streets of Paris and into a transport plane, then a pre-filmed piece showed the "Mission Impossible" star parachuting into the hills above Hollywood and handing the flag to U.S. cyclist Kate Courtney before the camera pulled back to reveal the Hollywood sign adorned with the five Olympic rings.
The nighttime ceremony in Paris then briefly switched over to sunny Venice Beach, where the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre performed some of their hits on a stage next to the LA28 logo.
City News Service contributed to this story.
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