UPDATE: Kyle Sturley of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission shared with us after this post went live that the events will take place in and around Camping World Stadium in a “festival-style urban park setting.”
The sports Orlando will host at the 2028 Olympic Q-Series have been confirmed.
Orlando’s stop, scheduled for June 8-11, will feature beach volleyball, climbing, flag football, and skateboarding. The Q-Series serves as a qualifying pathway for athletes heading to the LA28 Olympics and makes four stops: Tokyo (May 4-7), Shanghai (May 11-14), Montreal (June 1-4), and, as OrlandoShine previously reported, Orlando was selected to close out the series ahead of the Los Angeles Games.
The exact venues in Orlando have not been announced, though. The sports suggest a mix of existing and temporary facilities. Beach volleyball could land at Volleyball Central Florida, one of the Southeast’s largest beach volleyball complexes, or on a coastal setup at Cocoa Beach or New Smyrna Beach, or maybe even Boxi Park in Lake Nona, where Olympian Phil Dalhausser (a gold medal winner at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics) hosts his Beach Volleyball Academy (Website).
And while flag football is a natural fit for Camping World Stadium, the climbing and skateboarding park would likely require temporary builds, with downtown Orlando plazas or parks among the more likely candidates given their visibility and footprint. But here’s hoping they look at High Point Climbing and Fitness in the Packing District as a potential site.
And while we’re blueskying, this may also be a good opportunity for the local organizing partners, The Greater Orlando Sports Commission, Orange County, and the City of Orlando, to invest in a new skate park. Maybe even on one of those sites by the stadium that they just declared as a blight.
