{"id":17988,"date":"2025-01-11T17:13:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T17:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=17988"},"modified":"2025-01-11T17:13:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-11T17:13:35","slug":"la-wildfires-threaten-2028-olympics-as-flames-inch-closer-to-key-venues-including-historic-riviera-golf-club-ucla-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=17988","title":{"rendered":"LA wildfires threaten 2028 Olympics as flames inch closer to key venues \u2014 including historic Riviera Golf Club, UCLA campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a threat of Olympic proportions.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0deadly Los Angeles wildfires<\/a>\u00a0have already scorched tens of thousands of acres, and are showing no signs of waning.<\/p>\n

After destroying neighborhoods and waterfront mansions, the intensifying infernos now pose a very real threat to the city\u2019s third Summer Olympics in 2028 \u2014 as flames continue to inch ever closer to many venues, including the historic Riviera Golf Club and the UCLA campus.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
A 2023 photo showing the crowd at the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Golf Club.Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\"A8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
A firefighter battles a blaze in the Angeles National Forest near Mt. Wilson during the Eaton Fire on Jan. 9, 2025.REUTERS<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Should the whipping winds spread flames further or spark new fires, venues like\u00a0SoFi Stadium<\/a>, located 19 miles away in Inglewood, and Carson Stadium, 28 miles away in\u00a0Carson<\/a>, could be in harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

The 100-year-old Riviera Golf Club, where the world\u2019s best golfers will compete for gold, is only five miles from the\u00a0Palisades Fire<\/a>\u00a0and within a designated evacuation zone.<\/p>\n

SoFi Stadium is set to host all of the swimming events, while all of the basketball action will go down in the Intuit Dome, also 19 miles away in Inglewood.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
A 2023 photo showing the crowd at the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Golf Club.Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\"A8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
A 2019 photo of the Riviera Golf Club, where the Olympic golf events will be staged.AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Olympic village, where the athletes will reside, is planned for the grounds of the UCLA campus.<\/p>\n

The Crypto.com Arena, the site for all of the gymnastics events, is 20 miles from the fires. Carson Stadium will host rugby and cycling. Diving events will unfold at John C. Argue Swimming Stadium, which is 20 miles from the fires.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Flames8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Flames and smoke from the Palisades Fire surround a home in the community of Topanga, California, on Jan. 9, 2025.AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tom Stallings, an Olympics historian and Rice University professor, told The Post that \u201cif anything were to happen\u201d to any of the venues, \u201cif it isn\u2019t feasible to fix it in the next three years,\u201d they\u2019ll likely \u201cmove [the events] to other areas or stadiums or courses in close proximity.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expects Olympics organizers \u201cwill deal with anything [that might happen] \u2014 God forbid \u2014 way in advance\u201d of the opening ceremonies, set for July 14, 2028.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
All of the Olympic swimming events will unfold inside SoFi Stadium, home to the Los Angeles Chargers.AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe International Olympic Committee is probably keeping a close eye on Los Angeles,\u201d Stallings said.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"A8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
A Jan. 10 satellite image from Copernicus, a European Union satellite, gives a sense of the size of the fires.EUROPEAN UNION COPERNICUS SENTINEL IMAGERY HANDOUT\/EPA-EFE\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sports historian and Penn State professor Mark Dyerson said if impacted by the fires, the LA games \u2014 which are set to conclude July 30, 2028 \u2014 could be moved to a different city or a different country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could go back to Paris,\u201d where facilities built for the 2024 games remain intact, Dyerson said. \u201cIt would be unfortunate, but I\u2019m sure they have some kind of committee \u2014 the IOC is a huge bureaucracy\u00a0\u2014 that allegedly\u00a0looks\u00a0at contingencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"A8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
A 2024 photo shows children outside Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus.AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ironically, the 1924 Paris games were moved to Los Angeles after severe flooding ravaged the city the year before, Dyerson said.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the\u00a0International Olympic Committee<\/a>,\u00a0LA28<\/a>, UCLA,\u00a0Team USA<\/a>, Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office and city hall did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s a threat of Olympic proportions. The\u00a0deadly Los Angeles wildfires\u00a0have already scorched tens of thousands of acres, and are showing no signs of waning. After destroying neighborhoods and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17990,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17988\/revisions\/17990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}