California Today: What Would a Very L.A. Olympics Look Like?
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Los Angeles leaders said on Monday that an agreement had been reached to bring the Summer Games to the city in 2028.
The announcement came after months of aggressive lobbying by Los Angeles in a rivalry with Paris, which is expected to be awarded the 2024 Olympics as part of the compromise.
“We’re a city that has always been a Games-changer and again will be in 2028,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference on Monday.
It would be Los Angeles’s third Summer Games, after hosting in 1932 and 1984.
At almost every Olympics, officials add new sports or drop others from the program.
For the next Summer Games, hosted by Tokyo in 2020, athletes will compete for the first time in three quintessentially California sports: surfing, skateboarding and climbing.
Whether they are kept on in 2028 is yet to be decided, but host cities get to propose sports of their own.
That got us wondering: What Los Angeles-specific sports should be included?
We asked our reporters in Los Angeles for some suggestions. A few of their ideas:
• A shortest shower competition.
• Fastest to extricate your car from stacked parking.
• Santa Monica Boulevard slalom.
• Food truck drag racing on Silver Lake Boulevard.
• Fastest surface street route around the 405.
• Who can get the most Instagram likes on their Runyon Canyon hike.
• Endurance “It’s a Small World”: Most rides in a row without a nervous breakdown.
• First to score a prime table at The Tower Bar.
• Best timing of a red light left turn.
• Longest juice cleanse.
• Escape to the Beach Race, Downtown to Santa Monica: A team on the Expo line versus a team driving on I-10.
• Dodger Stadium Sprint: Fastest out of the stadium to beat the crowds (and traffic).
• First to make the audience cry in a Morrissey-oke contest.
• Bacon-wrapped hot dog eating contest. (Held at 3 a.m.).
• Fastest time up and down the Santa Monica Stairs, with extra points for not breaking a sweat.
• Least original movie idea. (Although Hollywood has that very well covered.)
You have any ideas? Let us know at CAtoday@nytimes.com.
(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)
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