2028 Olympic torch relay to start in Atlanta ahead of Los Angeles games, organizers announce

The 2028 Olympics may be in Los Angeles, but the celebration will start with a full circle moment in Atlanta.

On Tuesday, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, LA28 chair and president Casey Wasserman, and other officials announced that the torch relay for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will begin in Atlanta, home of the last U.S. Summer Games in 1996, and travel through all 50 states.

The Olympic flame will be lit in Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, before beginning its journey around the United States in spring 2028. 

Coming out to a performance by the Clark Atlanta University Drumline and the sound of Jermaine Dupri's "Welcome to Atlanta," Dickens said the Olympics changed the city forever and that Atlanta will be proud to welcome the Olympic flame back 32 years after hosting the centennial Summer Games.

"Atlanta looks a little different. We are bigger. We are more connected to the world. So when the flame returns to the U.S., Atlanta will be ready," Dickens said in a statement. "Ready to welcome it from Greece. Ready to celebrate the spirit of the Games together as a community. And ready to send it forward toward Los Angeles and the next chapter of America's Olympic story."

Dickens said that Atlanta and Los Angeles will always be connected by the Olympic flame.

"In 1996, the flame traveled from Greece to Los Angeles, where Atlanta's Olympic torch relay began its journey across America. Now that journey comes full circle," he said.

LA28 organizers say the relay will be one of the largest in Olympic history, passing through iconic and internationally renowned landmarks, stopping at major cultural and sporting events and hosting festival celebrations in select cities nationwide.

"Every Olympic Games begins with a single flame, and carrying that flame to Los Angeles is an honor and privilege that we'll share with every corner of the country, as Americans in all 50 states carry the flame on its path to our Opening Ceremony," Wasserman said in a statement.

The full route for the torch relay will be announced in 2027. Details about the torchbearer nominations will be released in the coming months.

The Paralympic torch relay will follow the end of the Olympics in August 2028, with the flame originating in Stoke Mandeville, England, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement. The relay's U.S. starting location will be announced later.

Both torch relays will be sponsored by Coca-Cola, JPMorganChase, Allstate and Xfinity.