Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@olympics/Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
Topics: Olympics, Sport, World News
Kya Buller
Topics: Olympics, Sport, World News
Despite the 2024 Paris Olympics coming to an end on Sunday (Aug 11), people are already looking ahead to the 2028 games in Los Angeles - amid the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirming which new sports will be included in the future.
The news comes off the back of one sport being axed already despite only debuting this year.
The sport was breaking - also known as breakdancing.
One Australian competitor, Raygun, scored zero after her performance, leading her to open up about the 'disappointing' experience.
Advert
She said: "It was disappointing it was decided that it wouldn’t be in LA, particularly before we even had a chance to show it.
"That was possibly a little premature. I wonder if they’re kicking themselves now?
"What is an Olympic sport? What are the similarities between dressage and artistic swimming and the 100m sprint and the pentathlon?
"Breaking is clearly athletic, it clearly requires a whole level of dedication across a number of different aspects."
So, while we've bid adieu to breakdancing, it has been confirmed that there are some new sports we can expect.
Two of which are making their debut, and four are being reintroduced from times past.
Squash has been a popular sport to play among many groups for years now, and sees players pick up a racket and playing a singles or a doubles match.
Players are challenged to play in a four-walled court and hit the ball onto the walls.
Winning is made possible by hitting the ball in a way that it becomes impossible to hit a legal return shot.
Flag football is a derived from the sport of American football. This iteration challenges players to remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier to end a 'down', rather than by tackling them to the ground.
The IOC have confirmed that at the 2028 Olympics, each team will be made up of five players and the game is to be played on a 50-yard field with no offensive linemen.
As it is the debut of squash and flag football, they will both be ‘optional’ sports, as breaking was - so there's a chance they won't show up in 2032.
It's only right that this sport will make a return for the LA Games.
It was an optional Olympic sport until 1992 when it became permanent.
It was then dropped after the 2008 games, and was added again as optional in 2020.
Softball was included in every Olympics between 1996 and 2008, but was later dropped for both the 2012 and 2016 Games.
It was played again in Tokyo in 2021, but didn't get to return during the Paris Games.
Lacrosse is making a comeback after a whopping 120 years.
The last time it was played in the Olympics was in 1908.
It will be added as an official medal sport, and teams will consist of six players each.
Cricket has only ever been played once at the Olympics, in Paris in 1900.
It was last played 128 years ago, but will feature in the Los Angeles Olympics.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing were all optional sports, but have since been made permanent.