The International Olympic Committee continues to remake the Games with the hope of attracting new fans, and has added six new sports to the 2028 Olympics: baseball, softball, cricket, squash, flag football, and lacrosse. This gives the Los Angeles Olympics a very different look from earlier summer Olympics, says LA28. Squash and flag football will be in the Olympics for the first time, but cricket and lacrosse will be returning after appearances in early Olympics. Baseball and softball have both been in and out of recent Olympics, and have yet to find a permanent home.
None of the sports are guaranteed to remain in the Olympic Games past 2028, but some additions such as skateboarding and surfing have found permanent spots in the summer program, says Olympics. Joining these six new sports, though not in the Committee’s original plan, are weightlifting and modern pentathlon. The International Olympic Committee was worried about recent doping problems in weightlifting, but indicated late last week that the sport has made the correct moves to clean up those issues.
The addition of eight new sports have many fans excited to see their favorite players on the international stage. This addition also causes L.A. 2028 to rocket past the IOC’s limit of 10,500 total athletes for summer Olympic Games, and in fact IOC leaders have conceded that some disciplines inside current summer sports could be removed and the athlete cap tweaked before the Los Angeles schedule is finalized in 2025.
