The 2028 Olympic Games Organizing Committee has proposed five sports for the Los Angeles Games, LA28, subject to approval by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). They are baseball-softball, cricket, flag football (a limited-contact version of American football), lacrosse and squash.
The LA28 proposal now goes to the IOC Olympic Program Commission, which will discuss the proposal and make a recommendation to the IOC Executive Board (EB). If the recommendation is approved, the IOC EB will present the proposal to the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai, India (Oct. 15-17). If the proposal is accepted, the final event program and number of athlete quotas in the additional sports will be determined at a later date.
Of the five proposed sports, three have already competed in the Olympics: baseball-softball (1992-2008 and 2020), cricket (1900) and lacrosse (1904 and 1908). Unlike its only appearance at the 1900 Paris Games, cricket will not be played as a two-inning per side competition. Instead, the proposal for the event calls for a Twenty20 format with limited overs. The proposed format for lacrosse is Lacrosse Sixes. Lacrosse was contested at the Olympics in the early 20th century, with Canada winning both gold medals in the sport. Baseball-softball, on the other hand, was only recently added to the Olympic program for Tokyo 2020, where host Japan won both gold medals.
The framework provided by Olympic Agenda 2020, Olympic Agenda 2020+5 and Rule 45 of the Olympic Charter allows for flexibility in revising the Olympic program for each edition of the Games to introduce innovation and sustainability and promote gender equality. Tokyo 2020 (baseball softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing), Paris 2024 (breaking, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing) and Milan Cortina 2026 (ski mountaineering) have each included additional sports in the Olympic program within this framework.
UPDATE:
Baseball/softball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash have been officially included as additional sports on the program for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (LA28). The decision was taken by the 141st Session of the IOC on Oct. 15, 2023.
