Ryan Archibald: former Olympian on the release of the 2028 LA Olympics schedule

The 2028 Olympic schedule has been unveiled and it's inspired debate about what it could mean for New Zealand.

Some notable changes include athletics moving to the opening week of competition in Los Angeles and swimming shifting back to the second week.

Former Olympian Ryan Archibald joined Piney to discuss.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
News Talks EDB and Weekend Sport. The competition schedule for
the twenty twenty eight Los Angeles Olympics has been unveiled.
They will be the biggest Olympic Games ever, featuring thirty
six sports and fifty one disciplines across forty nine competition
venues in eighteen zones throughout Los Angeles and Oklahoma City.

(00:33):
The Olympic opening ceremony will take place on the fourteenth
of July twenty twenty eight, the closing ceremony on the
thirtieth of July. Three time Olympian and Men's Blacksticks triple
centurion Ryan Archieboard is the New Zealand Olympic Committee's Team
Services Director. He joins US now, Ryan, thanks for your time.

(00:54):
What are your overall thoughts? First of all on the
schedule for twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Eight, Good o, Piney. The schedule is extensive, you know,
more sports then we're at the Paris Games. And to me,
it's really exciting and it's fantastic that LA twenty eight
have released such detailed information so early in the piece
just makes I guess builds excitement, but also makes planning

(01:21):
for us here at ZOC and our sports that much easier.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
I was going to ask that because and you'll be
able to confirm this. It seems like this information is available,
you know, quite quite a way out. Is this earlier
than usual?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
It is earlier than usual. You know. I had the
benefit of being in LA spending some time with the
organizing committee in May this year, and I was really
impressed with how advanced they are with their planning. And
I think a lot of that is actually driven by
the commercial realities of this games. There's no public money
as I understand it, going into the the LA Games,

(01:57):
so you know, the organizing committee are really driven to
generate revenue, so they're wanting to put things in place
early so that they can sell tickets, get spomped, is
on board, and what have you. So I think that
that commercial reality is driving a lot of this early action.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
One of the main talking points is the swapping of
swimming and track and field. Traditionally, swimming takes place in
the first week of the Olympics and then track and
field in the second week. They flip that, why have
they done that?

Speaker 3 (02:24):
I think The reason for that is the venues the stadium.
So swimming is going to be in an NFL stadium
if you can believe that. So the Sofi Stadium, which
is home to the LA Rams, the organizing committee are
going to put two Olympic sized swimming pools in that stadium,
and so I think that move to have swimming in

(02:47):
that venue is driving the change between swimming and athletics. So, yes,
something different, something new for the Olympic Games. But I
think the fact that putting swimming in an NFL stadium
is going to be quite an exciting thing. It's going
to allow for bigger crowds and a really innovative way
of going about delivering swimming for games.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
So, just for clarity, that could have happened in the
first week. But is it also around the fact that
they want to use that stadium for the opening ceremony
or part of it.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, I think that that certainly affectors into it. So
the opening ceremony is going to be in two stadiums.
It will be partly in Sofi Stadium and also in
the Colisseum, which held the opening ceremony for the previous
time LA hosted the Olympics, So I guess there's some
logistical things that need to happen around that. Hent swimming

(03:40):
has been been pushed back to the second half of
the Games.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
All right, Well, look forward to seeing how that affects
or you know, what it changes in terms of our
swimmers and our track and field athletes as they build
towards the Games. What is your overall brief? Ryan? As
Team Services director? What is your job?

Speaker 1 (03:58):
So?

Speaker 3 (03:58):
My role in a nutshell is to plan and prepare
the team for the games and to kind of execute
the delivery of the team at games. And really when
we think about delivering at teens to games, it's about
taking care of the Olympic overlay, kind of the operations logistics.
But it's also ensuring that that we create a performance

(04:22):
environment at the games so that when our sports come in,
when our athletes, coaches and what have you arrived at
the games, they can just get on and do what
they do best without having to worry about all that
comes with a huge event like the Olympics.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
What are the main challenges you face in executing your role.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
I think the context for each games is different, so
the environment you're going into is different. Challenges can be
can be plentiful. That can range from I guess the
geographic dispersion of of sports across the city or across
a country. You know, for example, Los Angeles, there's a

(05:01):
couple of sports that are actually going to be based
in Oklahoma, which is a four hour flights away from
Los Angeles. We've got to make sure that we get
you know, all of our teams that are competing, all
of our individual athletes, our teams to the games. So
there's a really big logistical component behind delivering the team
for games. So that you know, those are just just

(05:22):
a few of the challenges, but it varies depending on
the location.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
And twenty twenty eight does seem like a way way off,
but I'm sure you've got it sort of all planned
out to the day between now in July of twenty
twenty eight. What are the key landmarks for you between
now and then, in particular over the next year to
eighteen months or so.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, I mean it's interesting. So, you know, planning for
a pinnacle event like the Olympics, you know, we're starting,
you know, three to four years out, we've already you know,
locked in additional accommodations, the Olympic village is going to
be at UCLA, but that never has enough beds through everybody,
so we're you know, we're already looking to see what

(06:01):
we can provide around that area for the team. But
we've also got a number of other events before Los Angeles.
So while we're kind of ticking some Los Angeles milestones off,
we've still got the Winter Olympics to deliver next year,
We've got the Commonwealth Games to deliver next year, and
also a Youth Olympics later in twenty twenty six. So

(06:22):
it's kind of never stops really for us at INCIDOC
when it comes to planning and delivering games, and so
we kind of, you know, Los Angeles obviously being incredibly important,
we kind of just sort of add that to the
menu of things that we're working on.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Do you even start thinking about twenty thirty two yet
or not?

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Yes, in a sense, we are. We're thinking about twenty
twenty two, sorry, twenty thirty two more from a probably
a commercial perspective. So INSIDOC has some operations and building
up our kind of support on the ground in twenty
thirty two in terms of how we fund the team,

(07:03):
you know, where We're largely a commercially fun the organization,
so we do think, you know, several cycles ahead in
terms of I guess how sustainability is an organization and
how we will fund teams two games?

Speaker 2 (07:18):
All right, Well, it is, as I say, a little
way off, but it's going to rush up. And in
true American fashion, they love doing things on a large scale,
don't they. As you say, a couple of Olympic sized
swimming pools inside a NFL stadium opening ceremony across two
different venues. Are you aware of other sort of innovations
that the organizing committee have planned for us for twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Eight all they do certainly like to do it, but
I know, I'm sure I'll be keeping a few surprises
under wrapps. But you know, from what I've seen to date,
you know, LA's blessed with some fantastic facilities. You know,
has a number of existing proficial professional franchises with stadiums,

(08:01):
so the facilities are going to be absolutely brilliant. So
you know, I mightation is that it will be a
really slick games and provide a great experience for throw
athletes who are competing. But also, you know, I guess
the hundreds of New Zealanders that will be there to
support the team.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
All right, brilliant Ryan, Hey, thank you so much for
the update this afternoon. Really appreciate your time.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's Ryan Archiebald here is the New Zealand Olympic Committee's
Team Services Director. So the schedule had already for twenty
twenty eight. Fourteen million tickets are on sale. Fourteen million.
Goodness me, I think I read that Los Angeles or
did Ryan just say it is the first one that

(08:42):
has no public funding. It's all privately funded, so I
guess that's why they've got to sell all the tickets.
The interesting part, the most interesting part, is the flipping
of the of the athletics and the swimming, and the
fact that there are changes within the track and field
program as well, in that the one hundred meters, the
women's hundred meters will all happen on the first day

(09:05):
semis final. The heats first heats Semis final, so those
who make the final of the women's one hundred meters,
and then on day two the men's one hundred meters
we'll all run three times on that day. Normally it's
a semi and a final on the same day. The
heats normally the previous day. Certainly it's split over two days,

(09:27):
but no, they want to hit with a bang. So
Zoey Hobbs, who will no doubt be there in LA
in twenty twenty eight. Well, hopefully fingers crossed run three
times on the opening day, a heat, a semi, and
hopefully the women's one hundred meter final, and then the
men will do that on the second day. The front
loaded a lot of the big events at the track

(09:48):
and field. I think I guess to hit with a
bang and the track and field will finish and then
the swimming will take place. It'll be quite a change
from what we used to where Olympics always start with
the swimming for a week and then we get ready
for the track and field. Flip it around, Flip it
around for more. Weekends Sport with Jason Fine.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
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