Emily Ota | Head Editor
January 17, 2026
In just two short years, our small hometown will be the host of the 2028 Summer Olympics for surfing. While the Olympics seems like it’s at our heels, I haven’t seen any preparation for it in San Clemente…have you?
The surfing competition is bound to be the largest and most important event hosted here in San Clemente history. Herds of people flock to the beach to attend WSL events and even smaller competitions, so we can expect at least double or triple the turnout for 2028. Despite the excitement buzzing around town, locals have pointed out some problems with the upcoming arrangement.
San Clemente is known for being a small beach town, applauded for its coziness and everyone-knows-everyone vibe. Everything is tiny: the streets, the parking spaces, and the beaches. Everybody who lives here complains on a daily basis about the lack of parking and twisting roads. If our usual San Clementians barely fit in this city, how will the flood of Olympic watchers, workers, and athletes? The only thing I’ve heard in terms of preparation for the Olympics is some scattered talk about homeowners who are already thinking about renting out their beachside houses to tourists and skipping town for the event! Besides those homes, hotels are sure to be booked, rental cars saved, and electric bikes accounted for very soon–meaning San Clemente has to get up to date on their planning.
Declan Linas, a local surfer and junior at SCHS, stated that he is excited for the event to take place in our city because it will “be really entertaining,” especially for him because he is working on the beach as a lifeguard at the same time. However, he admitted that Trestles is a small area for a competition as large as the Olympics, and maybe “Huntington would have been better” due to its vast sandy beaches. Since Trestles is quite small and a journey to get down to, tickets will most likely be expensive and hard to get ahold of. Luckily for Linas, his job guarantees him a ticket and a great view from the tower.
San Clemente native and senior at SCHS Ellie Martin agreed with Linas on the fact that “a bigger beach would fit the event better.” However, she also claimed that “Lowers is definitely the best wave nearby,” which is most likely why it was chosen to host the Olympic surfing competition. Even though she is highly anticipating this once in a lifetime experience, Martin is curious to see how they manage to fit everyone on the beach and in the town and is expecting Summer 2028 to be “insanely crowded everywhere.”
Summer 2028 is surely going to be a memorable season for all citizens of San Clemente. Even though we are all excited to host the Olympics and show off our town, it is vital that we begin to plan our spacing and organization accordingly. Hopefully our small town has time to prepare for the craziness of the LA Olympics before the time comes!
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