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While Paris 2024 chose surfing, climbing, skateboarding and breakdancing, Los Angeles 2028 has wiped the slate clean to introduce five different sports to its Olympic Games program.
Each Olympic host city can choose several additional sports on top of the traditional fixed program. For Paris 2024, it was surfing, climbing, skateboarding and breakdancing. For 2028, the Los Angeles organizing committee has made a completely different choice—with an American twist, of course.
The first new sport is flag football, a non-contact approach to the pastime that is played five against five. As in flag rugby, players wear flags on their belts, which must be torn off by the opposing team to stop the player with the ball. Squash, a very popular sport in the US, (particularly among businessmen) will also be featured for the first time after three unsuccessful attempts.
Cricket will be back in business more than a century after its brief appearance in 1900. It was chosen in particular to engage a wider audience to follow the Games, as the sport is incredibly popular in India, England, and Australia (among other countries).
The fourth new sport is lacrosse. It is very popular in American high schools and colleges and was already present at the 1904 Games in Saint-Louis and 1908 in London.
Finally, baseball and softball will also be making a comeback, having already been introduced at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Baseball is exclusively for men, and softball for women, with one difference for softball: the balls are bigger and softer.
The article was originally written for L’Équipe