What LA28 Looks Like to the Generation That Will Inherit Its Legacy

A student in middle school today will be a young adult when the Olympic Games arrive in Los Angeles. Their view of the Games, and of what they should leave behind, may be the one that matters most.

By Alexzander Awni, Sports Technology and Next Generation Correspondent

Family First News Desk |  Where Sports and Education Go Hand in Hand

he generation that will inherit LA28 is already old enough to ask what access, opportunity and lasting community investment should look like.

Young student athlete looking across a sports venue while considering future opportunities.

The Olympic Games will open in Los Angeles on July 14, 2028, and close on July 30. For anyone now in middle or high school, that is not a distant date. It falls in the years when they will be starting college, a first job or a career.

That makes this generation the inheritor of whatever LA28 leaves behind.

They will not remember 1984. They will not remember 1932. They will remember the Games they could attend, watch, volunteer for or work on.

The previous Los Angeles Games set a high bar for what a legacy can be. The surplus from 1984 created the LA84 Foundation, which has invested more than $225 million in Southern California, including grants to more than 1,100 youth sports organizations. Many of today’s coaches, fields and programs trace back to that decision.

What would the generation of 2028 want from its own Games?

Access. A real chance to attend, to volunteer and to see the Games, not only to watch them.

Opportunity. Internships, jobs and training tied to the event, especially in areas such as technology, engineering, media and sports operations.

Places to play. Fields, courts, pools and programs that are still there in 2038.

A voice. A seat in the conversation, not a place in the audience.

The people who will inherit the Games are already old enough to have opinions about them. The best organizers will ask.

If LA28 listens to the generation that will live with its decisions, it will do something its predecessors did well and something every Games should try to repeat: build for the people who come after.

Disclosure: Family First Foundation publishes Family First News Desk and runs youth sports and education programs in Los Angeles. Alexzander Awni is an aerospace engineering student at Penn State and a STEM Ambassador for the Foundation.