Female 100-meter Final Moved to Opening Day of LA28 Olympics in Schedule Overhaul

The female 100m title race will take center stage on the opening day of events at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics as a key element in organisers' strategies to “start with excitement”.

The surprise move, resulting in each heat of the 100m occurring on the same day, was welcomed by US sprint star Sha’Carri Richardson, who remarked that it showed “the sport is enjoying a resurgence”.

Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith also backed the adjustment for the Games, set from 15-30 July. “This is a thrilling chance – honoring the lasting impact, resilience, and worldwide influence of women’s sprinting, a full century after women first entered Olympic athletics,” she continued.

While sprinters usually compete up to two times daily, World Athletics stated it had consulted widely with participants to guarantee they agreed with the arrangement.

“Hosting the premier event on the opening evening at the iconic LA Memorial Coliseum – when we explained it to competitors, they were thrilled,” noted Janet Evans, the Games’ chief athlete officer. “Most athletes told me: ‘Simply inform me. Give me advance notice, and I’ll prepare to race three 100-meter events in a single day.’”

The international federation clarified it had deliberately arranged the program to permit as many athletes as possible to “enter more than one race”, not just in disciplines like the 100m and 200m but also the middle-distance runs and the 1500m and 5,000m. It said that there would be a decade’s worth of events at the LA Coliseum, with a mixed 100m relay being introduced, as well as 72 hours of street competitions at the end of the Games.

“We have landed on an athletics programme that will start with a bang as our women’s sprinters take centre stage on day one,” said the World Athletics president, Seb Coe. “It is a schedule that is both innovative but also honours tradition, with the men’s marathon on the final day.”

Yet, the line-up makes it unlikely that US sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will be able to compete in the 400m and the 400 hurdles, because the hurdles semifinals and the 400m final occur simultaneously.

Aquatics has historically kicked off the Olympics. Yet because it is occurring in the SoFi venue, which hosts the inaugural event, it commences in the second week.

Planners also confirmed that the first day will include the highest number of female championship events ever in a single day in Games’ history, with the female triathlon title one of the prizes available. They arranged a mega Saturday on the penultimate day, with 26 first-place awards across 23 sports available.

Shana Ferguson, LA28’s chief of sport and games delivery, said the aim is to distribute around 14,000,000 tickets across 51 Olympic sports at 49 sites, with public sales scheduled to open in April 2026. Officials added that organisers will not use the disputed variable pricing strategy that provoked outrage among Oasis fans this past summer and experimented with by the football governing body at the Club World Cup in the United States.