Venice Boulevard ends at the sand, and in July 2028 that spot becomes the busiest square of pavement in Los Angeles. LA28 has put the single transition area and the finish line for every Olympic and Paralympic triathlon there. On September 23, 2026, the organizing committee published the first course details. The women's individual race on July 15, 2028 will award the first medals of the Games.
Six days later, the Los Angeles City Council voted to find out what it would cost to widen the bike path that course runs on. That order of events matters for anyone who rides, runs or walks the beach every week. The route is mapped, in what LA28 calls a first look. The path under it has a date for a cost report and nothing more.
The course, laid over your usual loop
The LA28 release describes each leg in terms of places anyone in Venice already knows.
- Swim, 1,500 meters. Athletes start from the beach instead of a pontoon, which LA28 says has happened only once before in Olympic history. They swim a 1,000-meter lap, run 25 meters on the sand, then dive back in for a 500-meter lap.
- Bike, 40 kilometers. Eight 5-kilometer laps start on the Venice bike path and then move onto the streets of Venice, with two technical turnarounds. On the way back to transition, riders pass in front of the Venice sign.
- Run, 10 kilometers. Four 2.5-kilometer laps follow the bike route along the path and onto the roadways, then cross the bridges of the Venice Canals before returning to the finish.
The mixed relay on July 20, 2028 keeps its bike leg on the beach path itself, two laps of 3.3 kilometers each.
The release does not list streets one by one. It says "Venice bike path" and "the streets of Venice," and it names the Venice sign and the Canals bridges. Anyone guessing which blocks of Pacific or which walk streets get closed is ahead of the published material. What the text does establish is that the course is made of laps. A loop that passes the same point eight times on bikes and four times on foot keeps the athletes in Venice the whole morning. The Canals footbridges, usually the quietest crossings in the neighborhood, are part of the run.
The path itself is a 30-day question
The Marvin Braude Bike Trail through Venice Beach carries cyclists, runners, pedestrians, scooters and crowds on the same strip. In August 2026, Councilmembers Traci Park and Heather Hutt introduced a motion asking the Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Engineering, Recreation and Parks, and LA County Public Works to report back in 30 days. The report is to cover the cost, funding options and resources needed to widen the trail and add a separate pedestrian path.
The paper trail is short and recent.
| Date | Step on Council File 26-1136 |
|---|---|
| Aug. 18, 2026 | Motion introduced and referred to committee |
| Sept. 16, 2026 | Arts, Parks, and City Facilities Committee approves, 3–0 |
| Sept. 29, 2026 | Full Council adopts the item, 11–0 with four members absent |
| Oct. 12, 2026 | Clerk file lists the motion, the committee report, Council action and public comments, with no agency report yet |
The motion gives "30 days" and no calendar due date. Counted from the September 29 adoption, it points to roughly the end of October. That report is the next real decision point for the path. It is supposed to put a cost, a funding strategy and a scope on the table. As the Westside Current reported, the committee report argues that a wider trail and a separate pedestrian path could reduce conflicts, improve safety and make the area easier to get around during the Games.
So the July 2028 race date is fixed and the widening is still a request for numbers. A path that is going to be rebuilt has to go through a cost estimate, a funding source, a design and construction. As of this month, it has finished none of those steps.
Washington Boulevard came up, and stayed out
The public comments on the file are worth reading for anyone who rides south. The Westside Current reported that several comments asked the city to add a fully protected bike connection on Washington Boulevard, the unprotected link between Venice Beach and Marina del Rey. Three of those comments were identical.
The committee recommendation covers only the Marvin Braude trail through Venice Beach. It does not include a Washington Boulevard project. The Olympic planning that touches Venice's bike network stops where the motion's map stops. A ride from the beach to the Marina still runs on Washington as it is today.
Everything else on the beach runs on a 2027 clock
The path is the only piece without a schedule. The other beachfront projects have dates, and every one of them lands in 2027.
Venice Fishing Pier. Recreation and Parks describes Phase II as structural repairs to deck soffits, pile caps, piles and the top deck, funded with $1 million in Measure A money. The department's Venice page says the pier is open to the public daily. That page carries no update date, so read it as the department's posted status. The Westside Current reports that restoration work is expected to continue through Spring 2027. Veuve Clicquot has pledged support for the restoration through a partnership with the Los Angeles Parks Foundation. The brand turned the pier yellow during its Club Solaire activation. The public pop-up at 619 Ocean Front Walk ran October 2–4, noon to 6 p.m.
At that event, Councilmember Park tied the work to the Games. According to the Westside Current, she said, "Venice beach is going to be the face of Los Angeles in 2028 during the Olympics."
Venice Beach parking lot lighting. The Westside Current reports a $250,000 county-funded plan for ten 18-foot solar-powered lights down the center aisle of the lot. The lights would run at full brightness until 10 p.m., then dim to 30 percent unless they detect motion. Installation is expected to start in mid-2027 and take about three months. The same outlet connects the project to an August incident in which a vehicle went onto the Venice Pier .
Put those dates side by side and 2027 looks like a working year at the beach. Pier repairs run into the spring, and lot lighting starts in midsummer and runs about three months. If the Council funds the trail widening after the October report, that construction would land somewhere in the same stretch before July 2028. Nothing in the record yet says when, or whether it will be funded.
What changes this fall, and what doesn't
The near-term changes are small and seasonal. Recreation and Parks lists Venice Beach Recreation Center at 1800 Ocean Front Walk. Muscle Beach is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. through October 31, then 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from November 1 through March 31. It opens at 10 a.m. on Sundays and closes for rain, holidays and permitted events.
For the path, the late-October report-back is the date to watch. Council File 26-1136 is public on the City Clerk's site, and the agency report will show up there when it is filed. The full course maps are on LA28's triathlon announcement. If you're out on the path early, you can now ride or run the Olympic loop: out along the bike path, past the Venice sign and back toward the sand at Venice Boulevard. On foot, add the Canals bridges.
For more of the neighborhood beyond the beach, the Venice neighborhood guide and our summer look at what opened on Abbot Kinney pick up where this one stops.
Homes near Venice Boulevard, the Canals and the beach path are a few blocks from the 2028 course. If you own one and want to know where its value stands before the 2027 construction season, Tom Dolezel will give you a straight, local read. Request your home valuation.
