How a Sport Makes the Olympics: The Mechanics Behind LA 2028's New Roster

The Olympic Games are the most coveted stage in global sports, but the roster of events is far from static. When the 2028 Summer Olympics arrive in Los Angeles, the world will watch athletes compete in flag football and squash for the very first time. They will also witness the highly anticipated return of cricket, lacrosse, and baseball/softball to the global stage. For the athletes in these disciplines, inclusion represents the pinnacle of their careers. But for the organizers behind the scenes, the final roster is the result of a complex, high-stakes negotiation.[3][5]

For decades, the process of adding a new sport to the Olympic program was notoriously rigid, often taking generations of intense lobbying by international federations. The International Olympic Committee maintained a strict cap on the total number of sports, meaning a new entry usually required the painful eviction of an existing one. This zero-sum game left many popular global pastimes permanently locked out of the Olympic arena, frustrating athletes and fans who felt the Games were failing to keep pace with modern sporting trends.[2][6]

Today, the landscape has fundamentally changed. A series of modern reforms has transformed the Olympic selection process from a closed-door traditionalist stronghold into a dynamic, host-driven marketplace. Understanding exactly how a sport makes the cut reveals the delicate balance the IOC must strike between honoring global tradition, capturing youth appeal, and ensuring commercial viability for the host city. The journey from a grassroots pastime to a globally broadcast medal event is a fascinating mechanism of sports diplomacy, requiring federations to navigate strict geographical, ethical, and logistical hurdles.[1][6]

The journey to the Olympic podium begins long before a host city is even selected. The first mandatory hurdle is formal recognition by the IOC. To achieve this foundational status, a sport must be governed by an established International Sports Federation—a non-governmental organization that oversees the sport globally, standardizes the rules, and organizes world championships. Without this centralized governing body, a sport cannot even begin the application process, no matter how popular it might be in individual countries. This ensures the IOC has a single, authoritative partner to negotiate with.[1][2]

Recognition is ultimately a numbers game designed to ensure global participation. According to the Olympic Charter, a sport must be widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries across four continents, and by women in no fewer than 40 countries across three continents. This stringent geographical requirement ensures the Games remain a truly global competition rather than a regional showcase, preventing host nations from stacking the deck with sports only they play. It forces emerging sports to invest heavily in international development and grassroots programs before they can dream of Olympic glory.[2]

Once recognized, the International Federation must strictly enforce the World Anti-Doping Code. This includes conducting rigorous out-of-competition drug testing on its athletes, ensuring they meet the Olympic movement's high ethical standards regardless of whether they are actively competing in a tournament. Only after these administrative, geographical, and ethical baselines are met can a sport's governing body file a formal petition for Olympic admittance. The petition process is exhaustive, requiring detailed data on global viewership, youth participation rates, and gender equality initiatives to prove the sport adds tangible value to the Olympic brand.[2]

However, recognition does not guarantee a ticket to the Games. Chess and bowling, for example, are fully recognized by the IOC but have never been contested as medal events. The IOC explicitly bans purely "mind sports" and sports dependent on mechanical propulsion, such as automobile racing or powerboating. These rules are designed to preserve the fundamental athletic and physical nature of the Olympic Games, ensuring that human physical performance remains the absolute focal point of the competition. Even if a sport meets all geographical requirements, it can be permanently sidelined if it relies too heavily on a motor or a machine.[2]

The true catalyst for the recent explosion of new Olympic sports was the passage of "Olympic Agenda 2020" in 2014. Driven by IOC President Thomas Bach, this comprehensive reform package aimed to modernize the Games, control spiraling host-city costs, and inject fresh relevance into the aging Olympic brand. Recognizing that a static sports program was alienating younger generations and making the Games less attractive to potential host cities, the IOC fundamentally rewrote the rules of inclusion, shifting power away from a centralized committee and toward the local organizers.[1][6]

The most consequential change in Agenda 2020 was granting the local Organising Committee of a specific Olympic Games the power to propose additional events. Instead of waiting for the IOC to permanently alter the core program, host cities can now curate a bespoke lineup that reflects their local culture and appeals to their specific domestic demographics. This one-off proposal system allows the Olympics to experiment with new sports without making a permanent, decades-long commitment to them. It is a win-win: the host city gets to showcase its favorite pastimes, and the IOC gets to test-drive potential future core sports.[1]

Tokyo 2020 was the first to utilize this mechanism, successfully introducing surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing, and karate to massive global acclaim. Paris 2024 followed suit by adding breaking, leaning heavily into its urban, youth-focused vision for the Games. Now, LA 2028 is leveraging the exact same rule to bring American sporting staples to the global stage, proposing a slate of five sports that perfectly align with the infrastructure and culture of Southern California. The IOC officially approved all five proposals in late 2023, setting the stage for a uniquely American flavor at the upcoming Summer Games.[1][4][7]

Flag football's inclusion is a prime example of this new localized strategy. Backed heavily by the National Football League, the non-contact, five-on-five variant of gridiron football perfectly aligns with the American host city. The NFL's aggressive global expansion efforts synergize seamlessly with the IOC's desire to tap into the massive U.S. sports market. By utilizing existing venues and leaning on the NFL's marketing muscle, flag football provides high-octane entertainment without requiring the construction of expensive new stadiums, perfectly fulfilling the IOC's mandate for sustainable, cost-effective Olympic planning.[3][6]

Squash, meanwhile, represents a triumph of sheer perseverance. The high-intensity racket sport endured decades of failed Olympic bids, often losing out at the final voting stages to sports with larger commercial backing. Its eventual success for LA 2028 is largely attributed to the sport's development of a highly compact, glass-court venue concept. This innovation allows squash tournaments to be hosted in iconic, pre-existing locations with minimal environmental impact, aligning perfectly with the IOC's modern sustainability goals and proving that adaptability is key to Olympic inclusion. For the global squash community, the LA 2028 nod is the culmination of a half-century of lobbying.[4][6]

The return of cricket is perhaps the most commercially significant addition to the LA 2028 roster. Contested only once before—at the 1900 Paris Games—cricket will return in its fast-paced Twenty20 format. This move instantly connects the Olympic brand with the Indian subcontinent, unlocking a massive, highly lucrative broadcast market that the IOC has long sought to capture. With hundreds of millions of passionate fans in India, Pakistan, the UK, and Australia, cricket's inclusion is a strategic masterstroke that guarantees a massive spike in global viewership and significantly increases the value of future Olympic television rights.[3][4]

Lacrosse also makes a historic return, having last been a medal event in 1908. To fit the strict Olympic constraints, World Lacrosse developed "Sixes," a condensed, fast-paced format played on a smaller field with fewer athletes. This radical adaptation highlights a crucial reality of modern Olympic bids: sports must actively shrink their footprint to be considered. By reducing team sizes and match durations, lacrosse proved it could deliver thrilling competition without overwhelming the host city's logistical capacity, a compromise that ultimately secured its long-awaited return to the Olympic stage.[3][4]

This shrinking is absolutely necessary because the IOC enforces a strict quota of 10,500 total athletes for the Summer Games. Every new team sport introduced puts immense pressure on this cap. To accommodate the new LA 2028 sports without blowing past the limit, the IOC must carefully manage athlete allocations across the traditional core sports, sometimes reducing roster sizes or eliminating niche disciplines in other events. The 10,500 limit is the ultimate bottleneck, forcing fierce competition among federations for every single athlete slot and ensuring the Games do not grow too large for future cities to manage.[1][4]

The host-city proposal system also means that Olympic glory can be fleeting. Because these sports are added specifically for one edition, they are not guaranteed a spot in future Games. Breaking, the darling of the Paris 2024 organizers, was not selected by LA 2028 and will drop off the program entirely. This creates a high-stakes environment where new sports must prove their global appeal immediately; if they fail to draw ratings or sell tickets in Los Angeles, they may never see the Olympic rings again. They are effectively auditioning for a permanent spot on the core roster.[4]

The future of the LA 2028 additions remains an open question. While baseball and softball are deeply ingrained in American and Japanese culture, their fate for the Brisbane 2032 Games is uncertain. Similarly, the participation of active NFL and Major League Baseball players in Los Angeles is still being negotiated. If the world's top professionals are not released by their leagues to compete, the tournaments risk losing their star power, which could jeopardize their chances of being retained by future host cities. The logistics of pausing billion-dollar domestic leagues for a mid-summer international tournament remain incredibly complex.[3]

Ultimately, the modern Olympic selection process is a reflection of the Games' evolving identity. By balancing a stable core of traditional sports with a rotating cast of host-selected events, the IOC has created a flexible, localized spectacle that can adapt to changing global tastes. For the athletes in flag football, squash, and lacrosse, the decades of waiting and lobbying are finally over. When they step onto the field in Los Angeles, they will not just be playing a game; they will be cementing their sport's place in history, proving that the Olympic movement is still capable of embracing the future.[6]