Putting and removing sports in the Olympic program, between the appeal and the American flavor. If sport climbing or skateboarding were premiered in Tokyo and it will be the turn of breaking in Paris, for Los Angeles 2028 there will be five novelties. As approved yesterday by the International Olympic Committee meeting in Mumbai (India), the Games in the Californian city will include baseball, cricket, lacrosse, flag football (a form 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 in Los Angeles. “The goal is to innovate and exert the greatest possible effect, to show sports rooted in the culture of the United States and, in the reverse sense, to make known there other relevant sports on an international scale”, analyzed the director of operations of the IOC, John Harper. This would be the analysis one by one:
BASEBALL, A SAU BELL. One of the great sports of the United States has been appearing and disappearing from the Olympic program since 1992, both in the male and female form, known as softball. “Baseball will give Los Angeles the opportunity to compete in the Games for the best. The IOC will be watching closely to make sure this is the case,” said Harper. It remains to be seen, as the Games usually take place during the height of the major league professional baseball season in the United States. Before 1992, this sport had already made sporadic appearances at the Games as an exhibition modality. From Barcelona to Beijing it was on the official programme. In London and Rio he disappeared. It was added at the last minute to the Tokyo Games, but was removed again for Paris. In 2028, on the soil of the United States, 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 USA”, reflected Niccolo Campriani, director of sports at the IOC. In this sense, he emphasized that the Indian player Virat Kohli, present at the summit of the Olympic organization, “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 together”. Cricket was Olympic in 1900. In Los Angeles it will be played in its Twenty20 mode (shorter duration).
WHAT IS FLAG FOOTBALL ABOUT? It is a form of American football that in the United States is known as flag football and in Mexico it is called tocho. It’s essentially like American football, but with no tackles. To stop an opponent who has the ball, one must pull one of the handkerchiefs that hang on the sides of the waist. The inclusion of this sport in the Games is an unprecedented novelty. The IOC approved the full recognition of the International Federation of American Football on Sunday. “It is the most popular sport in the United States and this version is the most inclusive. Flag football is the future”, stated Campriani.
LACROSSE AND ITS ROOTS. The IOC appealed to the indigenous roots of this sport, which it recalled was the first team specialty in the American continent. “It will be a return to the future”. It will be contested in six-on-one mode (six against six). It was part of the Games in 1904 and 1908, and was subsequently a demonstration sport in 1928, 1932 and 1948. It is a sport that is deeply rooted in large areas of the United States, especially in the university arena.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF SQUASH. Like flag football, it also makes its debut at the Games. To argue for its inclusion, the IOC emphasizes that among the top ten in the world ranking, 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 the 10,500 who will attend next summer’s meeting in Paris. Higher, stronger, farther and with more participants.
