Removable sports in the Olympic program, between the pull and the American flavor. If sport climbing or skateboarding debuted in Tokyo and breaking will be the turn of Paris, for Los Angeles 2028 there will be five new features. As approved by the International Olympic Committee meeting in Bombay (India), the Games in the Californian city will include baseball, cricket, lacrosse, flag football (a type of American football) and squash. Instead, breaking disappears, even before seeing what impact it has in Paris. These are sports that are only guaranteed to be present in Los Angeles, without going further in time. “The objective is to innovate and exert the greatest possible effect, show sports rooted in the culture of the United States and, in the opposite sense, publicize other relevant sports there at an international level,” analyzed the IOC Director of Operations, John Harper. . This would be his analysis one by one:
BASEBALL, A GUADIANA. One of the great American sports has been entering and leaving the Olympic program since 1992, both in its men's and women's forms, known as softball. “Baseball will provide the best in Los Angeles with the opportunity to compete in the Games. “The IOC will closely monitor this,” Harper said. We will have to see it, since the Games usually take place in the middle of the season of the major professional baseball leagues in the United States. Before 1992 this sport had already made sporadic appearances in the Games as an exhibition modality. From Barcelona to Beijing it was on the official program. In London and Rio he disappeared. At the last minute it was added to the Tokyo Games, but for Paris it was eliminated again. In 2028, on American soil, it has been decided that baseball could not be missing.
CRICKET, MASSIVE. “It is the second most popular sport in the world, with 2.5 billion followers and there is a commitment to make it grow in the US,” reflected Niccolo Campriani, IOC Sports Director. In this sense, he stressed that the Indian player Virat Kohli, present at the summit of the Olympic body, "is the third athlete with the most followers in the world on social networks, with 314 million, more than LeBron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods combined" . Cricket was Olympic in 1900. In Los Angeles it will be played in its Twenty20 form (shorter duration).
WHAT IS FLAG FOOTBALL ABOUT? It is a type of American football that in the United States is known as flag football and in Mexico it is called tocho. In essence it is like American football but with tackling prohibited. To stop an opponent who has the ball, you must pull one of the scarves that hang on the sides of your waist. Its inclusion in the Games is an absolutely unprecedented novelty. The IOC approved on Sunday the full recognition of the International American Football Federation. “It is the most popular sport in the United States and this version is the most inclusive. Flag football is the future,” said Campriani.
LACROSSE AND ITS ROOTS. The IOC appealed to the indigenous roots of this sport, which it recalled was the first team specialty on the American continent. “It will be a return to the future.” It will be played in sixes mode (six against six). It was part of the 1904 and 1908 Games, and was later a demonstration sport in 1928, 1932 and 1948. It is a sport deeply rooted in large areas of the United States, especially at the university level.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF SQUASH. Like flag football, it also debuts in the Games. To argue for its inclusion, the IOC highlights that among the top ten of the world rankings, men or women, there are competitors from four continents. With these developments, it is expected that the number of athletes present in Los Angeles will exceed 10,500 who will attend the Paris event next summer. Higher, stronger, farther and with more participants.
