Thirty years after carrying the Olympic flame through its streets, Atlanta will get the torch back first. LA28 organizers announced Tuesday, Sept. 29, that the torch relay for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games will begin in Atlanta — the city's first stop on a route that, for the first time in Olympic history, will pass through all 50 states before reaching the Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles.
The announcement came at a packed Atlanta City Hall, where Mayor Andre Dickens welcomed LA28 leadership and Olympic committee members to mark the city's return to the global Olympic stage.
“What a great day to be in a city that knows a little something about the Olympic Games,” Dickens told the crowd. “Atlanta was proud to carry the flame in 1996. We will be proud to welcome it back.”
Atlanta hosted the Centennial Olympic Games in the summer of 1996, an event that reshaped downtown — leaving behind Centennial Olympic Park, the venue-turned-neighborhood anchor that still hosts World Cup watch parties, concerts and festivals three decades later. Dickens leaned into that legacy in his remarks: “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. 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.”
The Olympic flame will be lit in Olympia, Greece — the birthplace of the Games — before beginning its U.S. journey in Atlanta in spring 2028. LA28 chair and president Casey Wasserman called it one of the most ambitious torch relays in Olympic history, one built to pass through landmark cities, stop at major cultural and sporting events, and host festival celebrations nationwide. The full route won't be announced until 2027.
A separate Paralympic torch relay will follow the Los Angeles Games in August 2028, originating in Stoke Mandeville, England — the birthplace of the Paralympic movement. Its U.S. starting city has not yet been named. Both relays are sponsored by Coca-Cola, JPMorganChase, Allstate and Xfinity.
For a city that has spent the past several years building toward another global moment — hosting FIFA World Cup matches this summer at Mercedes-Benz Stadium — the torch relay news adds one more line to Atlanta's Olympic-city resume, more than 30 years after the 1996 Games first put it there.
Source: Georgia Public Broadcasting
