LA28 Olympics: What are the new sports and events at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles?

It has been 118 years since lacrosse was last contested at the Olympic Games. For cricket, the wait has been even longer: 126 years.

Both sports will return in two years at the Olympic Games LA28, part of the largest Olympic programme in history.

The Games will feature 351 medal events, 36 sports and 51 disciplines across 49 competition venues in 18 zones throughout the Los Angeles region and Oklahoma City.

The women's football tournament will field 16 teams compared to the men's 12, the first time the women's draw has been the bigger of the two.

Water polo and boxing have both added women's events to match the men's programme.

What sports return to the programme at LA28 Olympics?

Lacrosse is back for the first time since 1908, with six-team tournaments for men and women at Exposition Park Stadium.

Cricket returns after an even longer absence – it was played at the Games only once, in 1900 – with six-team tournaments at the Fairgrounds Cricket Stadium in Pomona, California.

Baseball and softball return after sitting out Paris 2024. Seven years after Japan won baseball gold over the United States at Tokyo 2020 (in 2021), Dodger Stadium will host the six-team tournament in LA. The softball competition heads to Oklahoma City.

Two sports make their Olympic debut: flag football, a non-contact version of American football, stages six-team men's and women's tournaments at Exposition Park Stadium; and squash brings men's and women's singles to the Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios.

What are the new events in existing sports at LA28?

Swimming adds the 50m backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly – three races that have been on the world championship programme since 2001 but never at the Olympics.

Track and field adds the mixed 4x100m relay, joining the mixed 4x400m that debuted at Tokyo 2020.

Artistic gymnastics introduces a mixed team event, which was contested for the first time at the 2025 European Championships and then at the recent 2026 American Cup.

Archery will contest the compound bow – the first new bow style added to the Olympic programme since the sport returned in 1972.

Golf introduces a mixed team event with one male and one female player per nation competing over 36 holes, while rowing adds coastal beach sprints, a hybrid of sand running and 250m open-water rowing.

Table tennis adds a mixed team event, brings back men's and women's doubles for the first time since 2004, and drops the team events.

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