The 2028 Olympic Torch Will Begin Its American Journey in Atlanta, 32 Years After the City Hosted the Games
LA28 has chosen Atlanta as the U.S. starting point for a torch relay that will travel through all 50 states before reaching Los Angeles for the Opening Ceremony.
ATLANTA. Thirty-two years after Atlanta hosted the Centennial Olympic Games, the Olympic flame is coming back through the city for the start of its next American journey.
LA28 announced September 29 that Atlanta will serve as the U.S. starting point for the 2028 Olympic Torch Relay.
The flame will first be lit in Olympia, Greece, then arrive in Atlanta in spring 2028. From there, torchbearers will carry it through all 50 states before the relay ends in Los Angeles for the Olympic Opening Ceremony on July 14, 2028.
Atlanta is not just another stop
The route could have started anywhere in the United States.
Instead, LA28 chose the city that hosted the most recent Summer Olympics held on American soil.
Atlanta hosted the 1996 Games, which brought the Olympic world to Georgia and created physical and cultural landmarks that remain part of the city today, including Centennial Olympic Park.
LA28 said the decision is intended to honor Atlanta's Olympic and Paralympic legacy while opening a new chapter in the country's Olympic history.
This relay will be different from 1996
The 2028 relay is designed to be one of the largest in Olympic history.
LA28 says the flame will travel through all 50 states, stop at landmarks and major cultural and sporting events, and be accompanied by festival celebrations in selected cities.
The full route will be released in 2027, so Atlanta's exact relay path, timing and local celebration details are not yet public.
Information about torchbearer nominations is also expected later.
The connection runs through Coca-Cola too
Atlanta's Olympic relationship is not limited to 1996.
The Coca-Cola Company, headquartered in Atlanta, is one of four presenting partners for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays, alongside JPMorganChase, Allstate and Xfinity.
LA28 noted that Coca-Cola has been connected to the Olympic Movement for nearly a century and first served as a presenting partner of an Olympic Torch Relay for Barcelona 1992.
That gives Atlanta another connection to the relay beyond geography: one of the world's most recognizable Atlanta-based companies will help support the flame's nationwide journey.
The relay reconnects Atlanta to a global moment
The Olympic flame is designed to turn the Games into something people can experience before competition begins.
For cities along the route, the torch is not an Olympic event in the competitive sense. But it creates a public moment tied to one of the world's largest sporting events.
Atlanta's position at the beginning gives the city something different. It is not receiving the relay halfway through. It is welcoming the flame to the United States.
The Georgia inside the story
Atlanta's 1996 Games are usually discussed in the past tense: the athletes, Muhammad Ali lighting the cauldron, Centennial Olympic Park and the changes the Games helped accelerate across the city.
LA28 is turning part of that history forward.
The Georgia inside this story is that Atlanta's Olympic legacy is not simply being remembered. It is being used. Thirty-two years after the city hosted the Games, the next American Olympic story will begin here before the flame moves west toward Los Angeles.