BERLIN (Reuters) – A final recommendation on the new sports to be included in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics will not be made this week as originally planned, the International Olympics Committee said on Wednesday.
The nine sports seeking inclusion at LA28 are cricket, flag football, karate, kickboxing, baseball-softball, lacrosse, breakdancing, squash and motorsport.
The IOC was initially due to discuss it at Friday’s executive board meeting.
“Due to ongoing discussions between the IOC and the (LA2028) Organising Committee, the Olympic Programme Commission has not yet had the opportunity to hold its meeting to prepare its final recommendation for the IOC Executive Board,” the IOC said in a statement.
“As a consequence, the sports programme for the Olympic Games LA28 will be discussed during a later IOC Executive Board meeting, to take place at a date to be decided.”
Each Olympic host can propose a number of sports for inclusion in their Games with IOC ratification needed.
Of those nine sports, karate and baseball-softball are the only ones that were included in the Tokyo 2020 Games. Cricket is seen as the favourite with the sport’s massive appeal, especially in Asia.
While the sports’ inclusion is only for one edition of the Games, they are banking on the boost provided by Olympic participation to spur growth and remain an attractive Olympic product going into the next four-year cycle.
LA 2028 organisers can decide on several sports to be included.
Next year’s Paris 2024 Olympics organisers have included four additional sports, breakdancing, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing – the last three of which also featured as additional events at the Tokyo Games.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)
