IOC Approves Debut for 5 Sports at Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) surprised again. We’re not sure if it’s really pleasant for a wider audience, although there’s no doubt that the introduction of cricket, which is the number one sport in India, will make sports fans happy in many parts of the planet. It means that the second most populous country in the world might finally be able to welcome its first Olympic medal.

But let’s go back to the news itself: the IOC has approved five new sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. These are baseball, cricket, squash, lacrosse, and flag football. On the other hand, boxing as a sport with an incredible Olympic tradition is still doubtful due to the fact that the IOC no longer recognizes the International Boxing Association (IBA) as relevant, and since there’s no other, keeping boxing at the Games is yet to be discussed.

Why Did IOC Include Precisely These 5 Disciplines in Biggest Sports Event on Planet?

So, how come the mentioned five sports were designated to make their debuts? Among them, certainly the biggest “question mark” stands behind flag football, a less brutal variant of American football. The point of this sport is not to tackle down the opponent, but to remove the flag attached to the opponent’s belt (“deflagging”). It’s a very popular sport in the USA, and it’s also played in Canada, Mexico, Panama, and to some extent in Italy, Denmark, Austria…

The situation is similar with lacrosse (sixes), in which 14 world championships have been played so far, and in all the finals – except for one in which England played in 1974 – only the USA, Canada, and Australia played. The last time a non-North American final was played was way back in 1994 when Australia earned the right to fight for the gold.

Cricket (T20) certainly has its audience, given it’s the second most popular sport on the planet (after football; soccer, not American football) whose betting market experienced significant growth on best mobile bookmakers and other betting platforms in recent years, but even in that sport there are only 12 recognized national associations; one is extremely unusual – the last one we’ll mention. So, there are the associations of Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and, finally, the West Indies, for which cricketers from Caribbean countries and dependencies such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, and 14 more play.

Baseball (softball when it comes to mixed teams) has its aficionados too, but again in a limited number of countries; in addition to the USA, it’s also popular in Japan, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba…

Finally, squash is in most of the world usually considered as a form of recreation, although it can be very tiring. In recent years, contestants from Egypt have dominated in it, yet occasionally teams from Australia, less often England, Germany, France… are victorious. The Pakistanis dominated long ago, but that’s a bygone era.

Whatever one thinks, all of these sports were primarily chosen because they are more or less popular in the United States but will make sports enthusiasts in many parts of the planet happy. It just has to be stressed that none of these disciplines, with the exception of cricket (but only partly) is globally popular.