LA 2028 Paralympics to feature record 560 medal events across 23 sports

Los Angeles 2028 organizers unveiled a Paralympic schedule built for size and scrutiny: 560 medal events across 23 sports, more than 1,100 hours of competition and a footprint that stretches across nearly 20 venues in seven zones around the region. The Games will run from Aug. 15 to Aug. 27, 2028, and LA28 is calling them the largest Paralympic Games ever staged. For a city that hosted the Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 but has never hosted the Paralympics, the announcement marks a turning point and a test of whether ambition can be matched by access.

The opening ceremony is set for Aug. 15 in Inglewood at 20:00 ET, 17:00 PT, with the closing ceremony scheduled for Aug. 27 at LA Memorial Coliseum at 21:00 ET, 18:00 PT. Competition will begin before the opening ceremony, with wheelchair rugby starting Aug. 13 and boccia on Aug. 14, though LA28 said no athletes will be eliminated before the ceremony. That spread across the calendar and the map will put pressure on transit, ticketing, housing and broadcast planning as much as on the fields of play.

One of the clearest symbols of the program’s expansion is para climbing, which will make its Paralympic debut in Los Angeles after being added to the programme in 2024. The International Paralympic Committee said it is the first time an organizing committee has ever added a new Paralympic sport to the programme. LA28 says para climbing will include eight medal events, split evenly between men and women, with 80 athletes total and competition running from Aug. 24 to Aug. 27. The IPC also confirmed eight-team tournaments in blind football, wheelchair rugby, goalball, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball, underscoring how deep the team-sport fields will be.

The schedule also brings a push toward a more balanced Paralympic program. LA28 says women will receive 45% of athlete places, up from 42% at Paris 2024, with 107 more female quota places than the previous Games. Organizers say six sports are expected to reach gender parity for the first time, while the IPC says full gender parity will be reached in a record 17 sports. LA28 also says Paralympians will be housed together at the Olympic and Paralympic Village on UCLA’s campus, the first time since Rio 2016 that athletes across every sport will share one village. The numbers are historic; the harder question is whether Los Angeles can make a sprawling, symbolic Paralympics genuinely accessible from the curb to the screen.