Swimming at the 1924 Summer Olympics

Lore & Background

The swimming program at the 1924 Summer Olympics included 11 events, split between men and women. The United States team, coached by Bill Bachrach, dominated by winning 19 of the 33 medals and 9 of the 11 gold medals. A total of 169 swimmers from 23 nations participated, with Great Britain and France fielding the largest teams at 26 and 20 swimmers respectively.

Reader's Guide

The 1924 Olympic swimming competition marked a significant display of American dominance, with the U.S. winning over half of all medals. The event featured a broad international field, including nations such as Argentina, Australia, Japan, and Yugoslavia. Women's events were contested by 51 swimmers from 10 nations, reflecting the growing inclusion of female athletes. The competition took place over eight days in July, with the host nation France contributing 20 swimmers. This Olympics helped solidify swimming as a core Olympic sport, with the medal table showing a clear hierarchy led by the United States.

Did You Know?

• The United States won 19 of the 33 medals and 9 of the 11 gold medals.
• 169 swimmers from 23 nations competed.
• Women's events had 51 participants from 10 nations.
• Great Britain and the United States each sent 26 swimmers.

The Unprecedented Dual-Award Bidding

The road to Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Games was unlike any bidding cycle in modern Olympic history. Five cities initially entered the 2024 race—Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Paris, and Rome—but three dropped out, leaving only two contenders. Rather than forcing a single winner, the International Olympic Committee proposed a groundbreaking solution: award both the 2024 and 2028 Games simultaneously in 2017. Paris, whose selection would coincide with the centennial of its 1924 Games, was understood as the natural choice for the nearer slot. Los Angeles accepted the 2028 date and received an additional $1.8 billion in IOC funding as part of the arrangement. The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously in August 2017 to endorse the bid, and on September 13 of that year, the full IOC assembly in Lima, Peru, confirmed the city by unanimous vote. IOC president Thomas Bach singled out the bid's reliance on existing and temporary venues and its entirely private funding model as record-setting achievements.

A City's Triumphant Olympic Legacy

Los Angeles 2028 will represent the fifth Summer Olympics and the ninth Olympic Games of any kind staged on American soil. The city itself has previously welcomed the Summer Games in 1932 and 1984, and the 2028 edition will cement its place as the third city in history to host the Olympics three times. Only London, with its 1908, 1948, and 2012 appearances, and Paris, with 1900, 1924, and 2024, have achieved that distinction before. What makes Los Angeles particularly notable is that it will be the first non-European city to reach three Olympic hosting stints. The Games will also carry a generational milestone: they will be the first Summer Olympics conducted under the IOC presidency of Kirsty Coventry. Beyond the city proper, competition venues will stretch across the Greater Los Angeles area, with two additional subsites located in Oklahoma City, broadening the geographic footprint of the event.

Transportation Ambitions Meet Practical Reality

When civic leaders first outlined their vision for LA 2028, the goal was a fully car-free Games, designed to ease congestion, shorten travel times, and simplify security around venues. Former Mayor Eric Garcetti launched the Twenty-eight by '28 initiative, a push to accelerate completion of 28 infrastructure projects funded through the countywide sales tax measures known as Measure R and Measure M. Mayor Karen Bass added strategies such as encouraging remote work during the event to reduce network demand. However, by March 2024 the original list had been substantially revised, with eleven projects—including five rail line expansions—swapped for smaller, more achievable alternatives. By late 2024, observers noted that only 5.2 percent of LA Metro's $3.3 billion Olympic-related project list had been funded, and several initiatives were behind schedule. Compounding the difficulty were staffing uncertainties, interagency coordination gaps, and a late-finalized venue list. Faced with these constraints, civic leaders quietly pivoted from the car-free ideal to a more pragmatic transit-first approach.

Reshaping the Olympic Sporting Program

The 2028 Games will mark a significant evolution in which sports earn a place on the Olympic stage. Three disciplines that debuted as optional events in Tokyo 2020—skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing—will be elevated to the core program, signaling the IOC's confidence in their global appeal. At the same time, the Games will introduce flag football and squash as new optional sports, expanding the roster of medal events. Several traditional sports will also make a comeback: baseball and softball return to the lineup, cricket appears for the first time since 1900, and lacrosse re-enters as a medal event for the first time since 1908. This blend of youthful new additions, long-absent classics, and established core events gives LA 2028 a uniquely diverse sporting identity. The competition is scheduled to run from July 14 to July 30, 2028, offering athletes and spectators a fortnight of events that span decades of Olympic tradition and contemporary innovation.