OKLAHOMA CITY — Some of the events planned for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 are far from the heart of the city. There’s soccer at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (11 miles from downtown LA). There’s volleyball in Anaheim (30 miles). There’s surfing in San Clemente (64 miles).
But two competitions are so far-flung that they’re out of state: canoe slalom and softball, both of which will be held in Oklahoma City (1,327 miles).
That’s right: the Los Angeles Olympics won’t entirely be in the Los Angeles area.
As the city prepares to host the 2028 Olympics — a marketing and logistical juggernaut that is expected to draw more than 10,000 athletes from around the world and pump millions of tourism dollars into the local economy — the Oklahoma City connection has become a curious footnote that has befuddled some Angelenos.
Los Angeles officials don’t view Oklahoma City as taking away any of their Olympic spotlight. Rather, they said they’re grateful: Oklahoma City is saving cash-strapped Los Angeles money.
Organizers for the 2028 Games have promised to deliver a so-called no-build Olympics, a cost-cutting move that means no new permanent stadiums or infrastructure will be built. Los Angeles faces a budget crisis and a challenging disaster recovery effort following January wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes.
Beyond the financial issues, the political symbolism is not lost on leaders of the two cities.
Los Angeles, the country’s second-largest city, is run by a Democrat and has been battling President Donald Trump over the administration’s immigration crackdown and other policies. Oklahoma City is one of the largest cities in the country run by a Republican and is in a deeply red state. At a time of deep divisions between red and blue America, the little-noticed collaboration illustrates how two cities can work together to put sports over politics on the world stage.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the bipartisan effort was “so consistent with the Olympic spirit” — especially, she added, “given the polarization in our country right now.”
Last week, Bass traveled for the first time to Oklahoma City, where she met the city’s mayor, David Holt, and toured Riversport OKC, a watersport facility along the Oklahoma River that will host canoe slalom (think: whitewater rafting with gates). After watching powerful pumps churn to create whitewater race conditions, Holt and Bass signed a memorandum of understanding, making their collaboration for the 2028 Games official.
At the event, Holt called Bass his friend and presented her with a key to the city.
On the surface, their two cities couldn’t be more different. One is a city of more than 3.8 million people known for movie stars, palm trees, world-renowned beaches and world-renowned traffic. The other is a city of fewer than 800,000 deep in Tornado Alley that is home to the aptly named Thunder, the city’s NBA team. This will be Los Angeles’ third Olympics — the others were in 1932 and 1984 — but Oklahoma City’s first.
But there are surprising ties between the two. The cities are connected by the former U.S. Route 66. And they share the Dodgers, in a way: Oklahoma City’s minor-league Comets are part of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.
“There’s a lot more that brings us together than divides us,” Holt said, adding, “We don’t have to agree on every issue, but we can stand shoulder to shoulder.”
Other host cities have used satellite sites for Olympic events, often to ease logistical burdens or to save money.
For the Summer Olympics in Paris last year, surfing was hosted nearly 9,800 miles away in Tahiti. The last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics in 1984, the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and Harvard Stadium in Boston hosted a number of soccer matches, including one in Boston that was attended by Vice President George H.W. Bush.
Last Friday, before Bass was presented with a key to Oklahoma City, Los Angeles city officials toured Riversport OKC and Devon Park, which will host softball in 2028 and is the largest softball stadium in the United States. The money saved was very much on the minds of Los Angeles officials, including Paul Krekorian, who is overseeing the city’s role in hosting the Olympics.
As they walked around the watersport facility, Krekorian said, “Imagine building this in Sepulveda Basin.”
When Los Angeles made its bid for the 2024 Olympics, it included initial plans to host canoe slalom at a recreation area known as the Sepulveda Basin along the Los Angeles River that includes golf courses and picnic areas. If softball had been held in Southern California, Krekorian said, a minor-league baseball stadium would have been adapted to accommodate softball.
“It would have been a massive effort, costing a tremendous amount of money, to replicate what is already here,” Bass said of holding canoe slalom in Los Angeles instead of Oklahoma City.
All of this started back in 2018, at a dinner at a steakhouse in Oklahoma City.
After Holt became mayor of Oklahoma City in 2018, he got to know Eric Garcetti, who was the mayor of Los Angeles at the time.
Garcetti played a crucial role in the city’s effort to host for the Olympics, starting with a bid for the 2024 Games. At the steakhouse in Oklahoma City, Garcetti proposed an idea to Holt: How would he feel about hosting whitewater events for the Olympics in Oklahoma City?
“I will always remember that moment because I immediately understood that that would be darn near the biggest thing that had ever happened in our city,” Holt said. “From that point forward, I was kind of a dog on a bone.”
Garcetti said the benefits of hosting two sports in Oklahoma City were threefold. The move helped save money, benefited the environment and, he said, would be a chance to hold Olympic events “across party lines — red states, blue states.”
“It just seemed,” he said, “like a natural three-fer.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.