The LA28 Organizing Committee has proposed five additional sports for the Olympic Games in 2028. These sports are baseball and softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash.
Three of the five proposed sports have previously been sports contested at the Olympic Games. These include baseball and softball, cricket and lacrosse.
“Both baseball and softball would be awesome to see in an Olympic Game,” said Christian Davies, a junior management information systems, or MIS, major. “It would be nice to be able to cheer for players that I know in a sport that I love to watch.”
Unlike its only previous appearance at the 1900 Paris Games, cricket will not be a two-innings-a-side competition. Instead, the proposal calls for a limitedovers, 20-20 format for the event.
For lacrosse, the proposed format is Sixes Lacrosse. Lacrosse appeared in consecutive Games in the early 20th century, with Canada winning both gold medals awarded in the sport.
“I would love to see lacrosse in future Olympic Games,” said John Nagy, a senior mass communication major. “For one, it would definitely favor the U.S., but it would also be awesome to see a real contact sport being played between countries.”
Baseball and softball were most recently included in the 2020 Tokyo Games, where the host, Japan, took both gold medals.
Following its discussion of the LA28’s proposal, the International Olympic Committee’s, or IOC’s, Olympic Programme Commission will issue a recommendation to the IOC Executive Board.
If it gets approved, the final event programme and number of athlete quotas in the additional sports will be finalized in the near future.
The framework that was set by the Olympic Agenda 2020, and Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter, gives flexibility to review the Olympic Programme for each edition of the Games.
This will be done in order to try to introduce innovation and promote gender equality. Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024, and Milano-Cortina 2026 have all included additional sports on the Olympic Programme under this framework.
When it comes to sports like flag football, many are wondering where they are going to pull players from.
As of now, NFL players would be allowed to compete under IOC rules, but it is unclear whether teams would allow their athletes to compete, considering clauses in their contracts.
“I think it would be really cool to see NFL players get to represent their country,” said Jackson Kiser, a junior business major. “However, I think it will take a lot for NFL teams to trust that their players won’t get injured playing a limited-contact version of football.”
A lot of people are getting excited about the thought of seeing players like Patrick Mahomes and Justin Jefferson flying around the field and beating other countries by large margins.
The addition of these sports to the Olympic Games has the potential to be very entertaining, as spectators would get to see events that are not normally shown on an international stage.
