Paris, a city of art, welcomed the most recent Olympic Games in 2024 with a sweep of cultural offerings that paid homage to the association the games have had with aesthetics since the days of the ancient Greeks.

The city’s “Cultural Olympiad” lasted three years, included more than 2,500 official projects and took place in more than 5,000 locations across France and French territories.

The hip-hop choreographer Mourad Merzouki created an official dance of the games. A “theatrical blockbuster” at le Theatre du Chatelet explored the dramatic implications of soccer. Major exhibitions at the Musee de l’Immigration and the Panthéon monument examined Olympic and Paraolympic history.

“It’s how you make the case for arts and culture as something that is important for your city and communities,” said Beatriz Garcia, who prepared a report about the arts programming associated with the 2024 Olympics. “There is a lot of evidence of the legacy this leaves. It uses the Olympics to go much further and tell a story about who we are.”

But arts leaders in Los Angeles say that, three years out, their city’s Olympics committee — LA28 — hasn’t adequately taken up that torch, with no cultural plan yet announced, just two people assigned to the effort (one of whom is a volunteer); and no dedicated fund-raising for ambitious arts programming.