Thirty-five Years ago Olympic Icon Rafer Johnson lit the Cauldron Opening the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The Los Angeles Games were remarkable because the operating budget was funded entirely by private sources and produced an unprecedented surplus. The final accounting of the 1984 Olympic Organizing Committee, which included paying public agencies for police and other services, recorded a $233 million surplus. As mandated by an agreement signed prior to 1984, 60 percent of the surplus went to the United States Olympic Committee for elite athlete development. The remaining 40 percent was earmarked for the creation of a youth sports foundation to serve Southern California. That foundation became the LA84 Foundation.
The LA84 Foundation, since 1985, has used sport to promote positive academic, health and social outcomes. While the foundation is proud of the high-profile athletes such as Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Russell Westbrook, and the many other Olympians and pro athletes who played sports in LA84-funded programs, the real story of the foundation is its remarkable and continuing reach. Nearly 4 million young people in Southern California have benefitted from the LA84 Foundation’s 3,300 grants. While most of its funding supports programming, the foundation also has contributed to more than 100 sports infrastructure projects and trained over 193,000 coaches since 1985.
As you might expect there is a myriad of success stories among those 4 million youngsters. Certainly one of the most dramatic is Caylin Moore. His father is a convicted murderer, serving a life sentence. Moore and his other family members experienced, but survived abuse, hunger and poverty. Moore played football for a youth team funding by LA84 and parlayed that into a football scholarship at TCU, but more importantly, he was named a Rhodes Scholar and attended the University of Oxford. Not bad for a kid who grew up in Compton.
Then there’s SaraJoy Salib, who is part of our youth advisory group, the SAMbassadors. She used the tools she gained from being in a summer aquatics program funded by the LA84 Foundation. We were able to connect Salib with Olympian John Naber, who helped put her on the path to become a diver at Occidental College, becoming the first person in her family to attend university.
Another example is Serena Limas, whose goal of playing college basketball was cut short after a gruesome knee injury in high school. Limas didn’t allow adversity to get in the way of her love for the sport. She paid it forward by coaching youth basketball in the underserved area of Ramona Gardens and went on to be named 2018 Coaching Corps Coach of the Year. We were so impressed with Limas, that she now works with us at the LA84 Foundation.
These are just three success stories from the many we have seen come up through programs funded by us. Our goal is to impact the lives of more youth going forward and helping them reach the potential that each of them has.
The LA84 Foundation, in addition to providing funding and direct support, also has sponsored a number of studies on youth sports. Our most recent survey of youth sports participation patterns in Los Angeles County confirms what a previous LA84 report and other national studies have found: namely, that sports participation and physical activity correspond to family income. The less affluent a family is, the less likely their kids are to play sports and get physical exercise.
This reality is the basis of the foundation’s work. The foundation is committed to providing “Play For All.” We seek to level the playing field so that all children regardless of household income, zip code, gender, or ability have the opportunity — like Moore, Salib and Limas — to experience the benefits of sports.
However, our work is not done. At a time when educational budgets across the country are calling for cuts to after school programs, and the number of children participating in team sports is declining, we need to do more to ensure our youth are getting the opportunity to maximize their skills and progress towards a brighter future.
We must remember that talent is universal, but opportunity is not.
Thirty-five years after the 1984 Olympics, the LA84 Foundation continues to benefit Southern California’s most vulnerable young people and their families. The foundation is a shining example of how major sports events can have a positive social impact. With Los Angeles poised to host nine major sports events, including the 2028 Olympic Games, in the next decade, all of us here in Southern California have the responsibility to encourage sports leaders to ensure that their events provide lasting community benefits. What we do here needs to become a blueprint for a national movement that guarantees Play for All.
