Each Olympic host city can choose several additional sports, on top of the fixed program. For Paris 2024, it was surfing, climbing, skateboarding and breakdancing. For 2028, the Los Angeles organizing committee has made a completely different set of choices.
The first new sport is flag soccer, a kind of non-contact American football. It's 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 attacks. Squash, a very popular sport in the US, particularly among businessmen, will also be on show,. This will be the first time it has been included in the Olympic program, 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, closely followed in India, England and Australia, for example.
The fourth new sport is lacrosse. It is very popular in American universities and was already present at the 1904 Games in Saint-Louis, USA, and 1908 in London, England. The principle: put a rubber ball into a goal and pass it back and forth using large lacrosse sticks with nets; it's forbidden to pick up the ball with your hands.
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.
(L'Équipe)
