MINNEAPOLIS — The torch has officially been passed from the Paris Olympics of 2024 to the Los Angeles Olympics of 2028.
The closing ceremony on Sunday came with all the pomp and circumstance you would expect from a city known for Hollywood movie effects.
Tom Cruise wowed Olympic fans from around the world with a stunt that saw the "Mission Impossible" actor jump from the top of the stadium to the bottom.
Cruise then received the flag from Simone Biles and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Mass so he could safely transport the flag back to Los Angeles.
The 2028 Games will mark the third time Los Angeles has hosted — the two previous were held in 1932 and 1984.
Five new events will be added to the 2028 Olympic games, including flag football and squash, both being played for the first time in the Olympics, as well as cricket and lacrosse, which haven’t been played in the Olympics since the early 1900s.
The 2028 Olympics will also mark the return of baseball for men and softball for women.
Major League Baseball is currently considering whether to give professional baseball players time off to compete.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has the final say when it comes to which events are held during each Olympic Games.
The IOC features a committee of 111 members and 37 honorary members, according to the committee’s website.
The IOC says the host country also has a voice when it comes to determining which events are included.
When the five new events for the 2028 Games were formally announced, IOC President Thomas Bach said, “The choice of these five new sports is in line with the American sports culture and will showcase iconic American sports to the world.”
The host country also earns a competitive edge in the games by automatically qualifying for several team events.
According to the Olympics website, the host country automatically qualifies for handball, rugby, volleyball, beach volleyball, water polo, basketball and soccer.
Hosting the Olympics also comes with a significant amount of wealth and prosperity.
The LA28 planning committee is expecting to spend nearly $7 billion on the 2028 games.
However, the IOC estimates Los Angeles and the United States as a whole will experience more than $18 billion in economic activity through hosting the event.
That number is one-and-a-half times higher than the $12 billion estimate for the 2024 games in Paris.
The LA28 planning committee says they will not build any new stadiums to host the games. The committee has opted to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to convert existing stadiums instead.
LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman says SoFi Stadium, which is the home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, will be converted to an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
“It will be the biggest swim stadium and the biggest swim competition ever,” Wasserman says.
Mayor Mass has also voiced plans to make the 2028 Olympics “car-free.”
She and other local leaders are working to expand public transportation options in the city and to bring in more than 3,000 buses from across the country.
No ticketing information is currently available for the 2028 Olympic Games.
During the Paris Olympics, the first batch of tickets went on sale 18 months before the first games started.
If the LA28 committee follows that trend, the first batch of tickets for the 2028 games will be available around February of 2027.