The Olympic flame could find its way to San Jose on its way to Los Angeles in 2028.
The San Jose City Council on Nov. 3 will consider entering into a partnership with the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2028 to bring the Olympic Torch Relay to the city before the Summer Games in 2028.
A view of the LA 2028 sign in front of the Olympic cauldron at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum which will host Athletics for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and will host Para Athletics for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
“We hosted the most iconic events in football and fútbol in 2026, and now we’re ready to play our part in the biggest worldwide sporting event coming our way in 2028,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement. “Seeing that torch on the streets of San Jose will ignite the spirit of everyone who calls this city home and become a story we share with future generations.”
San Jose would be responsible for coordinating planning, public safety, traffic management and other logistical support, and Mahan is expected to lead fundraising efforts to cover the costs as he did for city-sponsored events associated with Super Bowl LX, the FIFA World Cup and NCAA men’s basketball tournament games.
The torch relay will go through all 50 U.S. states for the first time, and the full route will be announced in 2027, according to the LA28 website. If San Jose does end up as part of the torch relay, it wouldn’t be the first time.
Santa Clara County was part of the torch relay when Los Angeles hosted the Olympics in 1984. The flame, arriving from San Francisco where it caused traffic jams on the Golden Gate Bridge and was cheered as it passed through Peninsula cities, spent the night being guarded at Santa Clara University before passing through San Jose on July 17.
More than 100,000 people reportedly lined the streets to watch the flame pass through San Jose, carried by 23 people — including nine San Jose residents — in a relay that started at 6 a.m. and took about two hours.
Onlookers included the Olympic teams from Finland and Australia, who were training at San Jose State. The San Jose State band played the theme from “Chariots of Fire” as the relay passed by, and scientists from the nearby IBM facility joined the crowds gathered at Santa Teresa Boulevard and Bailey Avenue as the torch left the city for Morgan Hill.
Ironically, the torch relay wasn’t even the Bay Area’s biggest story that week as the Democratic National Convention was taking place in San Francisco.