O.J. Simpson famously carried the Olympic torch up the (recently rebuilt) California Incline in Santa Monica toward the culmination of a nearly three-month-long torch relay that began in New York. The Olympic cauldron was eventually ignited by decathlete Rafer Johnson.

Just as it had during the 1932 Olympics, the Coliseum played a key role in the 1984 games. It was the site of all track and field events, as well as the venue where opening and closing ceremonies were held. The games opened with an elaborate celebration, highlighted by a demonstration of a working jet pack and a musical performance that featured 84 grand pianos.

LAX got a major update in preparation for the 1984 games. It saw the addition of two new terminals, including the Tom Bradley International Terminal. The second level of the airport’s U-shaped roadway was also added at this time. A similarly ambitious overhaul is now in progress at the airport and should be complete in time for the 2028 games.

Then the home arena of the Showtime Lakers, the Forum in Inglewood was easily repurposed for Olympic basketball in 1984. Just a few days before competition, however, the court was badly damaged when the scoreboard hit the floor. Workers hurriedly patched up and repainted the court in time for competition.

The late Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was used for boxing competition and as a rehearsal facility for the opening and closing ceremonies. Constructed in 1959, the Exposition Park arena was demolished in 2016. It’s since been replaced by the Banc of California soccer stadium.

A labyrinth of offices, work spaces, and darkrooms was constructed at the Los Angeles Convention Center to house the thousands of reporters and photographers who descended upon Los Angeles to cover the games.

ABC used Hollywood’s Sunset Gower Studios as a base of operations for coverage of the Olympics. The company had paid $225 million for the right to broadcast the games in the United States and was able to reach an enormous audience. Across the globe, more than 2 billion people—nearly half the world’s population at the time—tuned into the opening ceremonies alone.

The International Olympic Committee decided to give baseball a shot as an Olympic sport in 1984. Six teams competed in a demonstration event (no medals were awarded) at Dodger Stadium.

VIP guests, including IOC leadership, stayed at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Downtown LA. The hotel overlooks Pershing Square, and the park was given a hasty $1 million makeover in preparation for the games.

Canoeing events were held all the way out in Ventura County on Lake Casitas, a manmade reservoir. Rowers and coaches stayed at their own Olympic village at University of California Santa Barbara during the games—roughly 100 miles from the other athletes at UCLA.

The committee constructed a state-of-the-art cycling velodrome on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills. It opened in 1982 and was demolished in 2003 to make way for the StubHub Center, where Mayor Eric Garcetti announced last year that Los Angeles had agreed to host the games in 2028.

Most equestrian events were held at Arcadia’s famed Santa Anita Race Track—though not on the track itself. Instead, temporary bleachers were erected on the dirt track and a competition ground was installed alongside the existing grandstand.

East Los Angeles College’s Weingart Stadium was thusly named after the Weingart Foundation paid to refurbish it specifically for use as a field hockey venue during the Olympics.

Most of the handball matches during the 1984 games took place on the Cal State Fullerton campus, but the men’s finals were held at the Forum.

Cal State Los Angeles hosted the Judo event in 1984. The school’s gym was equipped with an enormous mural by artist Guillermo Wagner Granizo, one of dozens of Olympics-themed murals that popped up on the sides of buildings and freeway walls in anticipation of the games.

The archery range at El Dorado Park in Long Beach is still there. Gone are the temporary bleachers with capacity for up to 4,500 spectators.

A shooting range was constructed for the games at Chino’s Prado Regional Park. It took the organizing committee a long time to lock down a location for this event. Incredibly, one location the committee briefly considered was Caesar’s Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.

Uytengsu Aquatics Center—where athletes competed in swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming during the games—was known as McDonald’s Olympic Swim Stadium when it opened in 1983. Built on the campus of the University of Southern California, it was constructed specifically for the games but continues to be used by the school.

Tennis wasn’t yet an Olympic sport in 1984, but the IOC agreed to test it out during the summer games that year. A small, medal-less tournament was held at UCLA’s new tennis stadium, which had just opened that spring.

The gymnasium at Loyola Marymount University was covered over with 920 square feet of carpet in preparation for its role as a weightlifting venue.

At the Anaheim Convention Center, wrestlers competed in three different rings simultaneously. The 1967-built arena, within the convention center, was decked out with banners and color-coded mats in preparation.

The equestrian speed and endurance events were held 110 miles from Downtown LA at the Fairbanks Ranch Country Club north of San Diego. For three days, horses trotted, galloped, and jumped all over the newly opened golf course.

The last event held during the games was the men’s marathon, which kicked off at Santa Monica College. Runners wound their way through West LA and Marina del Rey before turning east and passing through Culver City and South LA en route to the Coliseum—in time for closing ceremonies.