Why Olympics in Los Angeles might not have softball without OKC

Sport wasn't included in LA's original plan for 2028 Games.

Photo by Hansjörg Keller on Unsplash

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Dejah Mulipola would love to represent Team USA again in the Olympics.

She did so during the Tokyo Games, winning softball silver, and when her sport returns to the Olympic roster in 2028, those Games will be in Los Angeles, close to her home. Most of the venues will be a stone's throw from where she was born, Los Alamitos, and where she was raised, Garden Grove.

But not the softball venue.

It will be in Oklahoma City.

"Yes, I'm a Southern California girly," Mulipola told me recently on the field at Devon Park after a Team USA intrasquad practice, "so I would have loved to have it in Los Angeles.

"But the way that life happens ... you gotta roll with the punches, and this is the opportunity that we have to be back in the Olympics."

When news surfaced a few Fridays ago that Oklahoma City would host softball and canoe kayak during the 2028 Olympics, pending approval of the Los Angeles City Council (sort of; more on that in a minute), there was a decent amount of hue and cry from athletes past and present.

"Absolutely crushed about this," gold medalist and former UCLA legend Natasha Watley wrote on Twitter. "Being an Olympian is about being in the middle of everything to get the true experience. Uugggghhhhh, I love my city, but this is not OK."

Also on Twitter, former Olympian Kelsey Stewart wrote, "Really, really dislike this. Part of the Olympics is the experience, and now future Olympians will miss out on that."

Even players who've had some of their greatest moments in Oklahoma City weren't happy.

"Don't like this at all," former OU outfielder Nicole Mendes wrote on Twitter.

She won two national championships in OKC.

Ditto for Aubree Munro, a former Florida Gator, who wrote, "I love this park, I have amazing memories playing here, but the Olympics in the US should be bigger than the WCWS. The athletes should get the full Olympic experience and the types of crowds that LA can host. I wish there would have been a more creative solution."

Here's the truth: Oklahoma City hosting Olympic softball was the creative solution.

Here's some more truth: the 2028 Olympics likely wouldn't include softball if not for Oklahoma City.

Los Angeles began the process of bidding for the Olympics about a decade ago. In 2017, when the city was awarded the 2028 Games, softball wasn't on the docket. Even the map approved back then by the LA City Council for venues, both existing and proposed, didn't include anything for softball.

(Keep that in mind for later, by the way.)

It wasn't until last October that softball was added to the 2028 Olympics, approved by the International Olympic Committee.

As we learned last week, Olympic talks between folks in LA and OKC have been going on for six years.

Six years!

So, when Los Angeles petitioned the International Olympic Committee last year to add baseball-softball (the Olympics pair the two together, so if you want to add one, you have to add both), LA was already years into conversations with OKC. At that point, Los Angeles knew it didn't have a suitable site for softball — the sport deserves better than to be played on a converted baseball field like it was in Tokyo, and LA has decided not to build any new facilities for these Games — but the city also knew Oklahoma City could and would host Olympic softball.

So it petitioned for baseball-softball to be added.

If not for OKC, it seems entirely likely softball might not have made LA's cut.

And because a softball venue wasn't on the Olympic map originally approved back in the day by the LA City Council, it doesn't have to give its approval for softball to be played in Oklahoma City.

When the organizing committee for the 2028 Olympics announced its proposed updates for the venue plan, LA28 didn't include softball as a venue change that requires city approval. Swimming and basketball moving to Inglewood, artistic swimming to Long Beach, equestrian to Temecula, shooting to an existing venue outside LA and, yes, canoe slalom to Oklahoma City's RiverSport facility must have city approval.

Softball isn't on the list for needing approval.

I'm sure we'll get more details in the coming months about how that deal was done — non-disclosure agreements had to be signed by those who helped broker the deals for Oklahoma City, so specifics are limited now — but barring something totally unexpected and nearly unprecedented, Olympic softball is coming to OKC.

And talking to Mulipola and other national team members in town recently for a training camp and games against the Oklahoma City Spark, there was a sense of understanding about Olympic softball being at Devon Park. Sure, being in Southern California would've been great. But where the competition would be held didn't seem to bother players who've been in the Games before.

"Your Olympic experience is what you make it," outfielder Haylie McCleney said. "That's what I remember so much from 2020. We obviously didn't have an Olympic experience like normal (because of the pandemic, which limited crowds and pushed the Games back a year) ... but it was what we made it. It was a really fun experience."

McCleney's favorite memories were of time spent with teammates. They'd hang out on their balconies at night talking or in the mornings drinking their coffee.

Because of the softball schedule during the Games, McCleney and her teammates were unable to attend the opening ceremonies. Additionally, two of their games were played in Fukushima, nearly four hours north of Tokyo, so Team USA spent several days in Fukushima in a hotel instead of the Olympic Village.

No Olympic experience is perfect.

Still, McCleney doesn't remember feeling cheated.

"I'll be honest with you, after the tournament started, we were like, 'Rest, recover, fuel up, make sure you're staying hydrated,'" she said. "We got film. We got team meetings. I don't think a lot of people realize that you have so much of that preparation that kind of goes into your Olympic process that you're not really worried about, 'Who can I meet from Team China or from Team Australia?'"

Mulipola said she had fun being in the Olympic Village, meeting other athletes and trading Olympic pins. But like McCleney, Mulipola's best memories were with teammates. During practice. In the dugout. On the bus. In their rooms.

Mulipola roomed with fellow UCLA alum Bubba Nichols, and one night, they had a dance party in their room. Just the two of them dancing around in their pajamas.

"Just enjoying and soaking up the experience," Mulipola said. "We're at the Olympics. Let's enjoy every moment of this."

And being at Devon Park last week, even when it was empty after a morning practice, players could start imagining what those Olympic moments could be like in 2028.

"I'm looking around right now, and I can just see this place being sold out," McCleney said. "All the people in red, white and blue."

She looked up at the thousands of seats rising above her vantage point on the field.

"Yeah, it's empty now," she said, "but it's not gonna be."