Vargas lays down Olympic groundwork

With still three years still to go before the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, chief of mission Ricky Vargas has already begun laying the groundwork, ensuring that Filipino athletes are fully prepared in their quest to bring home more medals.

The affable executive went on a three-day visit to Los Angeles scouring potential training facilities, hospitality venues, and accommodations for the Philippine delegation.

“Other countries have started to check out the same things so we’re actually not early,” said Vargas, who was joined by Cignal first vice president and head of Channels and Content Sienna Olaso and Cignal vice president for Sports Business Development Miguel Vea in the trip.

“We’ve done the first round. In February, we’ll do another round and hope to finalize details. One of our goals is to confirm a training site which we hope will be better and more equipped than in Metz, where we set up camp before the Paris Olympics.”

Campuses such as Pepperdine University, Loyola Marymount University, and University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) are among the candidate sites for training camps as they offer world-class facilities for our national athletes.

UCLA, for one, offers a sprawling 400-acre campus, which will house around 80 percent of the Olympic Village.

Vargas shared that the plan is to bring a delegation of 20 to 25 athletes, along with their coaches and trainers, to camp in Los Angeles a month before the Games to maximize preparation and fast track their acclimation.

Aside from the training sites, Vargas inspected potential hospitality and event centers for the Philippine Olympic Committee, where guests and supporters may be hosted during the Games.

Among those options were The Petersen Automotive Museum and the Film Academy Museum, while 20 hotel rooms are also set to be booked in a central location to house key officials and staff.