Orlando will host one of four qualifying events in the lead-up to the LA28 Games, the IOC announced following its executive board meeting on Thursday. The city will be home to the final event in the Olympic Q-Series in June 2028, with Tokyo, Shanghai and Montreal selected to host the first three.
The IOC will set the sports program for each event in the series at a later date, but they are set to include 3x3 basketball, beach volleyball, flag football for the first time. The IOC launched the qualifying series in 2024 with skateboarding, BMX freestyle and climbing contested in Shanghai and Budapest in the lead-up to the Paris Games.
The IOC launched the event as part of a series of reforms under past-President Thomas Bach, aiming to use the Olympic branding to spotlight and promote athletes’ journeys to the Games. Tokyo (May 4-7) and Shanghai (May 11-14) will host back-to-back events in Asia before the series moves to North America, with Montreal (June 1-4) and Orlando (June 8-11) hosting.
The IOC will announce information on ticketing, broadcast distribution and the sports program later. The decision was one of several by the IOC executive board on Thursday. It also announced:
- No summer sports will join the program for the Winter Games in the French Alps in 2030. The IOC has been reviewing which sports are in the Games, entertaining proposals to add cross country or cycling events to the winter edition.
- The IOC no longer recommends restricting Belarussian athletes from competitions, reversing a decision that has been in place since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC did not change its position on the continued exclusion of Russian athletes, citing continued review of the Russian Olympic Committee’s noncompliance with the Olympic charter.
- It will not decide on a host of the Youth Olympic Games in 2030 as planned as it assesses the strategy for that event. Dakar is set to host this year’s Games in the fall.
