The Biggest Olympics In History

When Los Angeles hosted the Olympics in 1984, there were a then-record 221 events in 21 sports.  When the Games return to LA in 2028, there will be 351 events in 36 sports.  That's 22 more events and four more sports than in Paris, and a whopping 140 events and 15 sports more than the last time LA hosted.  So, for the second time, 44 years apart, Los Angeles will be the site of the largest Olympic Games in history.  They'll also be the first where the amount of female athletes is greater than the number of men.

The expanded event program and increased number of women are just two of the massive changes we'll see in LA.  The finalized program was approved by the IOC on Wednesday, confirming that there will be approximately 100 more quota spots for women than men (5,655 to 5,543) while keeping the 10,500-athlete limit.  They also allowed for an additional 698 athletes in the five sports added just for 2028.  And, with all of these changes, the LA Games will look a lot different!

Perhaps the biggest change was also one of the most surprising.  Since 2008, the women's Olympic soccer tournament has featured 12 teams, while the men's soccer tournament has been 16 teams since 1980.  In 2028, that will be flipped.  The women's tournament will be the one with 16 teams, while the men had four teams cut and will only feature 12.  (Which pretty much accounts for the difference in quota spots.)

While this was a little shocking when I first saw it, the reasons for it make total sense.  The women's Olympic tournament is a senior-level event, second in importance behind only the Women's World Cup.  The men's tournament, of course, is an under-23 tournament (with three overage players).  Very few of the biggest names in men's soccer play in the Olympics.  This is FIFA and the IOC's acknowledgement that the women's Olympic soccer tournament is bigger than the men's.  The fact that the United States will be the home team sure doesn't hurt, either!

It's not just in soccer where the number of women's teams has increased.  They also expanded the women's water polo tournament from 10 teams to 12, matching the size of the men's field.  Every team sport will have either an equal number of men's and women's teams or, in soccer's case, more women's teams.  That also includes the four team sports added by the LA organizers (baseball/softball, cricket, flag football and lacrosse), all of which will feature a six-team tournament.

In 3x3 basketball, meanwhile, both tournaments will gain four teams, going from eight to 12.  The additional quota spots for 3x3 were taken directly from breaking, which might've been a one-and-done in Paris.  I would imagine that they'll change the format of the tournament from a single round robin to two groups of six.  Regardless, it shows the IOC's commitment to 3x3, which only debuted in Tokyo.

Another big winner was swimming.  Six events were added to the swimming program, with the 50-meter distance being added in all three strokes that didn't already have a 50 (the 50 freestyle has been a part of the Olympics since 1988).  With the 50 backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly being added, that brings the total number of swimming events to 41.  Surprisingly, they didn't add the mixed 4x100 freestyle relay, as well.  That seemed like a natural addition, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's included at Brisbane 2032.

Track & field will have a second mixed relay added.  The mixed 4x100, which is a brand-new event that won't make its international debut until next month's World Relays, will be contested at the World Championships for the first time in 2027.  It'll then make its Olympic debut a year later.  With the success and popularity of the mixed 4x400 relay, the addition of a mixed 4x100 wasn't a surprise.  Neither was dropping the mixed marathon race walk relay, the event that the mixed 4x100 relay replaces.

Mixed events have become popular with the IOC, the sport federations and fans.  Part of their appeal for the IOC and the federations is that they provide extra medal opportunities while not requiring any additional athletes.  And, with the success of mixed team events in the sports that already have them, it was only a matter of time until they added them in others.

Gymnastics and golf are among the sports that will have mixed team event for the first time in LA.  How that'll work, I have no idea.  But the thought of a gymnastics mixed team event is certainly compelling.  Table tennis will also debut a mixed team event in LA.  So will rowing, where it'll be one of three events in an entirely new discipline--coastal beach rowing.  And archery, which already has a mixed team event, will add another, as compound archery will make its Olympic debut (all other Olympic archery events are with the recurve bow).

Surprisingly, the mixed team event in diving was not added.  It's been a part of the World Championships for a while and really did seem like a no-brainer for Olympic inclusion.  Each team consists of one man and one woman, one diving off the springboard and the other diving off the platform.  With eight diving events already on the Olympic program, maybe they couldn't figure out a way to squeeze a ninth into the schedule?  But I'm hoping mixed team diving is something we see at the Olympics in the future.

There have also been changes to the program in existing sports.  Perhaps the most significant of those is in sport climbing, which will see the combined event split into separate boulder & lead disciplines.  Yet another example of the IOC showing its confidence in a newer Olympic sport.  Sport climbing was first contested in Tokyo with only one gold medal available.  Then in Paris, they separated the speed event, while keeping boulder & lead together.  In LA, each of the three will have its own gold medal for the first time.

As I already mentioned, rowing will have three new events in a totally different discipline--coastal beach rowing.  There will be men's and women's single sculls, as well as the mixed double sculls.  This is completely unlike the existing Olympic rowing events.  In coastal beach rowing, they have to run out from the beach, row in the open water, then sprint back to the finish line on the sand.  It looks awesome!  And they cut the two lightweight events from the traditional rowing program to make room.

After all the back-and-forth about boxing's international federation and whether it would even have a place in LA, it was confirmed as an Olympic sport for 2028 a few months ago.  The boxing program will look different in LA, though.  They actually added an event.  The new event is the women's heavyweight class, giving each gender seven weight classes.  Women's boxing didn't even debut at the Olympics until 2012.  Just 16 years later, Olympic boxing will be evenly divided between men and women (both in terms of number of athletes and weight classes).

They also confirmed what we already knew--that softball and slalom canoeing will be in Oklahoma City, not LA.  When they first announced this change over the summer, the initial reaction was overwhelmingly negative.  I, personally, have no problem with it.  It won't be the first Olympics to move events outside the host city (surfing in Tahiti, anyone?), and it's only a three-hour flight from LA to Oklahoma City.  Plus, there are two events out there, not just one, so they'll seem a lot less isolated than when a single sport is moved outside the host city.

Whether it's Oklahoma City, LA or elsewhere in Southern California, Olympic history will be made in 2028.  And not just because there will be more events than ever.  There will be more mixed events and more gender equity, while women will be in the spotlight more than ever before.  Which is only fitting.  Since this will be the first Summer Olympics helmed by the first-ever female IOC President, Kirsty Coventry.