The Olympic Games, an event started around 775 B.C., showcases the greatest athletes in each sport from around the world. The Games are held every four years and each time the focus is swapped between summer sports and the winter sports. Some of the sports included in the Olympics are track and field, swimming, cross country skiing and snowboarding. This year the Olympic committee announced that five new sports would be added to the 2028 Los Angeles games: lacrosse, flag football, squash, cricket and baseball/softball. While baseball/softball and lacrosse will be reintroduced after a previous stint, flag football, squash and cricket are new sports that will be making their Olympic debut.
Knox Eaton (11) is excited to see different sports added to the rotation.
“I think that new sports being added to the Olympics is a great idea. There are so many people who like to play lacrosse and flag football, so I have friends who will tune in to see that. I think cricket and squash will allow athletes from even more countries to participate, which is a good thing,” Eaton said.
To even be considered to become an official Olympic sport, the sport first has to be governed by an International Federation (IF). Then it has to pass compliance with the Olympic charter. If both of these things happen the sport, then has to be compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and the Olympic Movement Code. After the sport has gone though all these regulations and codes, then it is introduced in the next Olympic summer or winter game.
Saffy Evans (10) is a girls lacrosse player at SHS and is excited to see it reintroduced in the next summer Olympics.
“I am very excited that lacrosse has been added again to the Olympics because I believe it is very interesting to watch and has had a growing fanbase. One sport that I think should be added to the Olympics is pickleball,” Evans said.
While in theory it sounds easy to add new sports to the games, there are also lots of infrastructure and athlete problems surrounding the issue. Host cities of the games have to build venues to host the numerous different sports in the games. Challenges arise when after the games are over the venues are left unused because of the expensive upkeep and the lack of national athletes that play the sport. Countries are currently trying to curve this issue by repurposing these venues as malls or shopping centers. Although all these issues are very prominent the Olympic games is still a global event that draws millions of viewers to watch the best athletes compete against each other in their sport. Ben Marine (12) loves to play lacrosse and is an athlete on the SHS boys lacrosse team.
“I love lacrosse, so I think that it’s perfect for it to be a part of the Olympics. I’m excited to see it being played in the next summer Olympics because I think it will draw more attention to the sport,” Marine said.
