Delighted: Sporting chiefs thrilled with 2028 Olympics inclusion
United Kingdom chiefs of the newest Olympic Games sports have expressed their delight at the breakthrough call which will see them feature in Los Angeles in 2028.
Squash, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and baseball-softball will join the Olympics roster in five years time as the Games return to the United States for the first summer tournament since Atlanta 1996.
It’s especially huge for squash, who have consistently been trying to be recognised as an Olympic sport – the LA games will be their first appearance.
Flag football, a version of American football, is set for its inaugural Olympics Games, too, while Lacrosse will feature for the first time since 1908, but in a newer format which is set to make the game quicker.
Baseball featured in 2020 but will not be seen in Paris despite returning four years later across the pond.
Cricket has featured once before, in 1900, and will return using the T20 format following a successful tournament at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year.
“We are absolutely delighted,” England Squash chief Mark Williams told City A.M. “We are really pleased for everyone in the game, particularly for the players and young players who are getting into the game now.
“We have the British National Junior Championships next weekend and for the first time we are going to be looking at players at that event who will have the chance to go on and be Olympians. We are really excited.”
Pete Ackerley, chief of British American Football, added: “It is a great opportunity for people out there to become an Olympian and stand on the podium in LA.
“We are really confident that we can now develop our programmes to give us a seriously good chance at qualification, although other countries will say exactly the same. We now have a good platform to build upon.”
“We are all thrilled,” Leslie Rance of British Lacrosse said. “From players, coaches, managers and administrators, this is a really unbelievable moment for us.
“Everybody has worked hard, it is the breakthrough that we have been waiting for.”
Only two delegates voted against the inclusion of the five new sports at an International Olympic Committee meeting in Mumbai yesterday.
In a statement England and Wales Cricket Board chief Richard Gould said: “I am delighted that the Games will feature both men’s and women’s cricket, and have no doubt that featuring in the Olympics will accelerate the continuing and rapid growth of the women’s game.”