Looking ahead to the new and returning events at the 2028 Summer Olympics

The flame has been extinguished on the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, but the International Olympic Committee is already looking ahead to the 2028 edition of the games. The 2028 Summer Olympics, set to take place in Los Angeles, is already generating a buzz despite being four years away, and several new events will debut in the City of Angels alongside some returning favorites.

What new events are coming to the Olympics in 2028?

The United States' most popular sport will be coming to the Olympics in 2028 — or at least a version of it. Flag football, a non-contact variety of American football, was announced last year to be debuting at the Los Angeles games, the first time that the sport will be featured in the Olympics.

Flag football is "played by an estimated 20 million people in more than 100 countries across 6 continents," said the National Football League (NFL). It is the "most inclusive and accessible format of football, played by people of all ages and genders, with women and girls driving some of the sport's fastest growth." Both men's and women's flag football will be played in Los Angeles.

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Another unique game, squash, will also be played at the Olympics for the first time in 2028. Known "for its fast-paced gameplay and global appeal," squash "has long been vying for a spot on the Olympic stage, making its forthcoming debut a highly anticipated event among athletes and fans alike," said NBC.

Squash is "making its debut in Los Angeles after several previous applications to get Olympic status failed," said USA Today. The game "was invented in England in the early 19th century and has been played on a world-championship level since the 1970s," and has been gaining popularity ever since. It will be the third racket sport at the Olympics after tennis and badminton.

The final new event is also unconventional: Obstacle courses are coming to the Olympics in 2028 as part of the existing pentathlon. While the current Olympic pentathlon features horse riding, the equestrian portion will be replaced with "'American Ninja Warrior'-style obstacle courses" that will make a "perfect product for the TV audience," said ESPN.

The obstacle courses will join running, swimming, shooting and fencing as the five events that make up the Olympic pentathlon. Bringing this "bracing change to a niche sport that wafts vaguely into public consciousness every four years, only to waft out again, was a matter of urgency," said The New York Times.

What events are returning to the Olympics in 2028?

Lacrosse is making a return to the Olympics after more than a century, with the sport previously being featured at the 1904 and 1908 Summer Games. And it wasn't a large affair back then; only two countries, Canada and the U.K., competed in lacrosse in 1908.

In Los Angeles, men's and women's lacrosse "will be competed in sixes, an incredibly fast-paced, compact version of the sport at the intersection of field and box lacrosse," said World Lacrosse. The game also has Indigenous origins, and the Haudenosaunee, a group of six Indigenous nations, is pushing to compete as its own team to "reflect lacrosse's creation by Indigenous people in what is now the U.S. and Canada, as well as the competitive status of the Haudenosaunee," said Front Office Sports.

While lacrosse has been popular for a while, cricket has been gaining more recent regard in the United States, and will be played at the 2028 Summer Olympics for the first time since 1900. Back then, the game was relegated to "one men's match between Great Britain and France played over two days after the Netherlands and Belgium withdrew," said the official Olympic website.

This time around, players are hoping the bat-and-ball game, popular in East Asia, will have more of an impact. The 2028 Olympics "marks the dawn of a new era for cricket as it will be a golden opportunity to foster inclusivity and showcase new talent from emerging cricketing nations," legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar said on X. It will be the "start of something truly special!"