New Olympic Sports for LA 2028

For the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, the IOC and LA28 organizers have confirmed five added sports: flag football, cricket (in the T20 format), lacrosse (in the sixes format), squash and baseball/softball. Three of them, flag football, cricket and squash, are true Olympic debuts, while baseball/softball and lacrosse are returning to the Games after earlier appearances.

That is a big, deliberately American-flavored lineup, and it says a lot about how the modern Olympics are shaped. Here is what each added sport brings, which are genuinely new, and why the host city picked this particular mix.

The five added sports at a glance

Host organizers can propose extra sports tailored to their market, and LA28 used that power to load the program with events that have huge fan bases in the United States and around the world.

Sport	Format	Status at LA 2028
Flag football	5-on-5, non-contact	Olympic debut
Cricket	T20 (Twenty20)	Olympic debut (modern era)
Squash	Singles/knockout	Olympic debut
Lacrosse	Sixes (6-a-side)	Returning to the Games
Baseball/softball	Standard	Returning to the Games

Reading down the table, the split is three debuts and two comebacks. Each was chosen with an eye on audience size, television appeal and a fast, youth-friendly style of play, exactly the qualities the modern Olympic movement wants to add.

Flag football: American football, Olympic-style

Flag football is the headline debut. It takes the enormous global following of American football and strips out the tackling, players pull flags off ball-carriers instead, so it is fast, accessible and far less equipment-heavy. The Olympic version is a 5-on-5 game on a smaller field.

For a sport whose biggest league is a U.S. institution, an Olympics in Los Angeles is the perfect launch pad. The non-contact format also opens the door to broad international participation and near-equal footing for women’s teams. If you want the rules of the format, our guide to flag football rules breaks down how the game is played.

Cricket: the T20 game reaches the Olympics

Cricket’s Olympic return is one of the most significant additions in terms of sheer audience. The Games will use the T20 format, the short, explosive version of cricket that fits neatly into a broadcast window and has driven the sport’s global boom. That is a smart choice: a full multi-day Test match could never work at an Olympics, but a T20 fits perfectly.

Cricket has an enormous following across South Asia, the Caribbean, England, Australia and beyond, so its inclusion instantly plugs the LA Games into hundreds of millions of new fans. For context on cricket’s long, complicated Olympic history, our explainer on why cricket is not in the Olympics covers how the sport got here.

Lacrosse and baseball/softball: familiar faces returning

Two of the five are comebacks rather than debuts.

• Lacrosse returns in the sixes format, a faster, smaller-sided version designed for international play and easier global adoption than the traditional field game. Lacrosse featured in the very early modern Olympics long ago, so 2028 marks a long-awaited return. Our guide to sixes lacrosse rules explains exactly how the Olympic format works, and the broader plans in lacrosse at the 2028 Olympics.
• Baseball/softball returns after appearing at previous Games. It is a natural fit for a U.S. host, where the sport is deeply rooted, and it brings a ready-made fan base.

Both benefit from strong domestic infrastructure in the host country, which makes staging them straightforward.

Squash: a long campaign finally rewarded

Squash rounds out the five. The fast, high-intensity racquet sport has campaigned for Olympic inclusion for years without success, so 2028 is a milestone for the squash community. Its debut adds another individual, skill-driven event to the program and reflects the IOC’s willingness to test new sports through the host-city proposal route.

Why these sports, and why now

There is a clear logic tying the five together. Each has a large existing fan base, each offers a fast-paced and broadcast-friendly product, and several are strongly associated with the United States, the host nation. The modern Olympics increasingly lean on host cities to add sports that boost engagement, particularly among younger audiences, without permanently expanding the core program.

That last point matters: these are additions for the LA 2028 Games specifically, not permanent fixtures. A future host, such as Brisbane 2032, will make its own choices, so there is no guarantee all five carry over. Each host essentially gets to shape part of its own event lineup.

The short version

LA 2028 adds five sports: flag football, cricket (T20), lacrosse (sixes), squash and baseball/softball. Flag football, cricket and squash are Olympic debuts, while lacrosse and baseball/softball are returning. Chosen by the host organizers for their big fan bases and fast, youth-friendly appeal, they are add-ons for the LA Games rather than permanent Olympic sports.