US Olympic chief says spread-out Games are becoming the norm

Olympic Games spread across several cities are on their way to becoming standard, according to Sarah Hirshland, chief executive of the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Speaking at Columbia University's sports management conference in New York on 15 October, she said the event has grown so large that few single places have the venues and infrastructure to stage it.

LA28 already follows that pattern: softball and canoe slalom go to Oklahoma City, and the football tournament will be played in six metropolitan areas, among them New York, Nashville and San Diego. The 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps are set to copy the Milano-Cortina model, with venues split between Nice and the mountain regions. Salt Lake City's compact plan for 2034 is the exception rather than the rule, she said.

Hirshland expects Los Angeles to be the biggest summer Games yet, and the editions after it to get smaller as cost and infrastructure demands bite. "There is a point at which even the logistics get so cumbersome that you can't continue to grow," she said.

Hosting two Games in six years should also lift participation, she added. The USOPC points to the double-digit rise in some Olympic sports after Atlanta 1996, and is working with national governing bodies, and with colleges where American football still dominates, to be ready for the interest.