On October 9th, the 2028 Olympics Organising Committee proposed adding flag football, baseball/softball, cricket, squash, and lacrosse to the Olympics. On October 16th, The International Olympic Committee, or IOC, approved five new sports to be added to the 2028 Summer Olympics (LA28), which will be held in Los Angeles, California.
One of the additions, flag football, shows promise as a safer version of American football: players remove flags from other players’ waists to gain possession of the ball instead of tackling them. Flag football has a rich history, as it was played at military bases during World War II to entertain soldiers.
Another new addition is baseball for men and softball for women. Baseball is played with two teams of nine players. Each team switches out batting and fielding for nine innings. Softball is played with either nine or ten players on each team, depending on the style of softball being played. It has seven innings, differing from baseball’s nine innings. Baseball has long been a classic game played in the US and will bring a sense of pride to many fans watching the Olympics.
Cricket, a sport first played in England, is played with a ball, bat, and three pegs called bails that are located behind the batter. It is proposed to be played in the T20 format, a shorter game version. Cricket was once one of the most popular sports in the US, but baseball rose to fashion, so cricket dwindled. The Olympics will highlight America’s past time while regenerating interest in Cricket.
Squash is a sport that has enjoyed a resurgence in the US over the last ten years. Played with a racquet and a hollow rubber ball, squash was first created in London prisons, derived from the game of racquets. Squash is similar to tennis in scoring but is unique in its different types of racquet, ball, and court.
Lacrosse will be played in the Sixes format in the Olympics. Rather than the ten-person field lacrosse teams, the Sixes format has six people per team and moves faster. In lacrosse, each team has a crosse or a lacrosse stick, a stick with a net at the end for carrying a rubber ball to the opposing team’s goal. When asked about this change, SHS senior lacrosse player James Sullivan said, “I like how it’s just like a fast-paced game. I think it’ll be good even if you don’t really understand the sport. I think you’ll still enjoy the speed of the game.” Lacrosse can be enjoyed without a complete understanding of the rules and hopefully will continue to grow more popular, especially with the new viewers from the Olympics.
The Summer Olympics of 2028 (LA28) will likely benefit significantly from the addition of these games, and so will the games themselves. Increased exposure during the Olympics could be vital to popularizing these five games in the US and other countries participating in and watching them.