The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved the event programme for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, committing to a strong stance on innovation and gender equality. The new programme features 351 medal events, an increase of 22 from the Paris 2024 Games, while maintaining a core athlete quota of 10,500. This includes 698 additional quota places for sports such as baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash.
For the first time in Olympic history, all team sports will have at least the same number of women’s teams as men’s teams, with water polo adding two women’s teams to bring the total to 12. Football will also feature 16 female teams, more than its male counterparts. The additional sports add 322 female athletes and 376 male athletes.
The IOC prioritised gender equality in the athlete quota allocation process, ensuring that women’s events are balanced with men’s events. This is reflected in the event programme, which includes 161 women’s events, 165 men’s events, and 25 mixed events.
Innovative changes have also been introduced to the sports programme, including new mixed team events in archery, athletics, golf, gymnastics, rowing coastal beach sprint, and table tennis. Other additions include boulder and lead events in sport climbing and basketball 3×3 with expanded teams.
The event programme was developed based on requests from International Sports Federations to the IOC, following the principles of being gender equal, globally appealing, cost and complexity conscious, and athlete-focused. The LA28 sports programme is composed of 31 sports, including five proposed by the Organising Committee.
The IOC’s commitment to innovation and gender equality will be showcased at the LA28 Olympics, providing a powerful platform for female athletes to compete and succeed.
Source: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/la28-event-programme-marks-strong-commitment-towards-innovation-and-gender-equality