Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Lore & Background

The swimming competition at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. The facility featured a temporary 50 m warm-up pool located behind the locker rooms and entry concourse, as well as a temporary roof and open walls. The open walls allowed for temporary seating during the games. Since then, a wall and new roof have been placed on the facility.

Reader's Guide

The 1996 swimming competition is notable as the last Olympics to hold B-finals, a format that allowed additional swimmers to race for lower placings. The event saw 4 world records and 13 Olympic records broken, reflecting high-level performances. The women's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay made its Olympic debut at these Games, expanding the program. The temporary nature of the venue's warm-up pool and open walls highlights the adaptive infrastructure used for the Atlanta Games. The competition drew 762 swimmers from 117 countries, underscoring its global participation. The subsequent addition of a permanent wall and roof to the facility indicates its post-Olympic conversion into a more standard indoor venue.

Did You Know?

• The swimming competition was held at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.
• There were 762 competitors from 117 countries.
• This was the last Olympics where swimming B-finals were held.
• The women's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay made its debut at these Games.

The Unprecedented Dual-Award Bidding Process

In 2015, the International Olympic Committee opened the candidature window for the 2024 Summer Games with five cities on the table: Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Paris, and Rome. A cascade of withdrawals — Budapest, Hamburg, and Rome all pulling out — left only two contenders standing, echoing a similar two-way race that had decided the 2022 Winter Games between Beijing and Almaty. Rather than forcing a single winner, the IOC executive board in Lausanne proposed something never before attempted: awarding both the 2024 and 2028 host cities in one sitting. An Extraordinary IOC Session in July 2017 gave the green light. Paris, whose 2024 Games would mark the centennial of its 1924 hosting, was the natural pick for the nearer slot. Los Angeles, meanwhile, became the sole candidate for 2028, backed by an additional $1.8 billion in IOC funding. The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously in August 2017, and on September 13 the IOC delivered a unanimous award at the 131st Session in Lima, Peru. President Thomas Bach singled out the bid's reliance on existing and temporary venues and its entirely private funding model as record-setting.

A Historic Third Hosting and a New First

Los Angeles will claim a place in Olympic history that no other American city has reached. With the 2028 Games, the city becomes the third host ever to stage the Summer Olympics three times, joining London (1908, 1948, 2012) and Paris (1900, 1924, 2024). Crucially, LA will be the first non-European city to achieve that distinction, building on its earlier stints in 1932 and 1984. The 2028 edition also marks the fifth Summer Olympics and ninth Olympic Games of any kind held on U.S. soil. The event spans July 14 through 30, 2028, with competitions spread across the Greater Los Angeles area and two additional subsites in Oklahoma City, broadening the geographic footprint beyond a single metropolitan core. Another milestone sits at the governance level: these will be the first Summer Olympics conducted under the IOC presidency of Kirsty Coventry, making the transition of leadership a defining backdrop for the entire Games. The combination of a third hosting, a non-European first, and a new IOC era gives LA28 a uniquely layered significance in the broader Olympic narrative.

Transportation Ambitions Meet Ground Reality

Los Angeles civic leaders initially envisioned a fully car-free Olympic experience, designed to cut congestion, shorten commutes, and ease security logistics around venues. The Twenty-eight by '28 initiative, launched under Mayor Eric Garcetti, set out to accelerate 28 infrastructure projects before the Games, drawing funding from countywide sales tax measures known as Measure R and Measure M. Mayor Karen Bass later added strategies like encouraging remote work during the event to reduce pressure on the transit network. Reality, however, proved messier. By March 2024, eleven of the original projects — including five rail line expansions — had been swapped for smaller, more achievable alternatives. By late 2024, observers flagged that only 5.2 percent of LA Metro's $3.3 billion Olympic-related project list was actually funded, with several initiatives running behind schedule and interagency coordination still uncertain. The D Line extension, a three-phase rail project running from Wilshire/Western through Century City to the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, is progressing in stages through 2027, while the Regional Connector, finished in 2023, now links downtown light rail lines for smoother transfers. Faced with these constraints, officials pivoted from the original car-free promise to a more pragmatic transit-first approach.

A Shifting Olympic Program

The 2028 Games will showcase a noticeably evolved sporting program that reflects the IOC's ongoing effort to modernize the Summer Olympics. Three sports that debuted as optional events in Tokyo 2020 — skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing — have now been elevated to the core program, signaling their permanent place in the Olympic family. The optional slate for LA28 introduces two entirely new disciplines: flag football and squash, each making their first appearance on the Olympic stage. Meanwhile, several sports with deep Olympic histories are making long-awaited comebacks. Baseball and softball return to the program, cricket reappears for the first time since 1900, and lacrosse re-enters as a medal event for the first time since 1908. This blend of fresh additions and resurrected classics gives LA28 one of the most diverse competitive lineups in recent Olympic history. The program's evolution also underscores a broader strategic shift: the IOC is clearly willing to let the Games adapt to contemporary athletic culture while still honoring traditions that date back more than a century. For athletes and fans alike, the 2028 roster represents a snapshot of sport in transition.