Moving LA Olympics ’28 diving to Pasadena would be ‘an exciting milestone,’ mayor says

Hoping the Los Angeles City Council will take the final plunge to make it happen, Pasadena’s Mayor Victor Gordo is excited and hopeful that the Olympic diving events will, come 2028, be held at the city’s Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

“I’m excited that the Los Angeles City Council’s Olympic Games Ad Hoc Committee has moved us one step closer to seeing the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center host Olympic diving in 2028,” Gordo said in a statement on Thursday, Aug. 28.

“In the weeks ahead, we are hopeful the Los Angeles City Council will take that final step,” he said. “Such a decision would mark an exciting milestone for our historic venue.”

The Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, a nonprofit established in 1990 in Brookside Park, which features two Olympic-size pools and a diving well, would not comment on the news, referring questions to LA28.

On Aug. 27, a committee of the L.A. City Council unanimously approved a proposal from LA28 to relocate the diving events away from the John C. Argue Swimming Stadium at Exposition Park, noting that the pool would require a complete reconstruction to bring it up to requisite Olympic standards.

While the full council is yet to vote on the change, LA28 sought to sweeten the deal by offering to make improvements anyway to the Exposition Park pool, which was used in the 1932 Olympics. Those improvements would run around $2 million to $3 million.

A press release from the LA28 Olympic organization announced the proposal to relocate diving to RBAC, stating it would result in a large savings and expectations of additional revenue that would total up to $17.6 million for LA28.

“The decision to stage Diving at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center is beneficial on all fronts,” Reynold Hoover, CEO of LA28, said in the Aug. 27 release.

“This presents a significant opportunity to deliver successful marquee events, with greater budget certainty, while also ensuring an exceptional competition venue for our Diving athletes,” he said.

“We’re grateful to our Host City and Venue City partners for their unwavering support and collaboration as we finalize the 2028 Games plan,” Hoover said.

Gordo stated the value of bringing the 2028 Olympics to Pasadena.

“It will be a moment that brings energy, meaningful economic opportunity, and pride to our entire city,” he said.

“For generations, Pasadena has welcomed the world to share in events that inspire and uplift,” Gordo said. “And this will be another chance to add to that proud legacy.”

While the nonprofit Rose Bowl Aquatic Center was officially founded in 1990, the site’s history includes the Brookside Plunge, which was Pasadena’s first public pool, opened in 1914, and initially excluded people of color. It was located in the vicinity of RBAC.

Following protests from Pasadena’s large population of people of color, the city initially bent slightly by allowing “non-Whites” to swim there on Wednesdays during the day, which was just before the weekly nighttime draining and cleaning of the pool.

Outrage continued over the years, and eventually a lawsuit against the city officially forced desegregation of the pool in 1942, though it would be five years before it was fully unrestricted in 1947.

On Sept. 18, 2024, a ceremony was held at RBAC honoring Dr. Edna Griffin, who was instrumental in leading the lawsuit to desegregate the Brookside Plunge swimming pool. At that time, the RBAC officially renamed its recreational pool in her honor.

Griffin, the first black physician in Pasadena, became a community leader following her arrival in the city in 1935. She was the first black member of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and served as president of the local NAACP from 1939 to 1947.

Pasadena’s Aquatic Center would not be the city’s only piece of the upcoming L.A. Olympics. The Rose Bowl itself will host soccer, and venues from Long Beach to the Inland Empire will be home to other events.

But Gordo said that bringing the Olympics to the venue would highlight the city’s history and fortitude.

“It is a reminder of who we are — a city that rises to the occasion, embraces historic moments, and does it together,” he said.

Jarret Liotta is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and photographer.