On Monday, LA28 presented a proposal to the International Olympic Committee. Their proposal looked to potentially approve baseball-softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash for the 2028 Olympic Games.
USC Freshman pitcher and Biomedical Engineering major Andrew Harbour explained that this is a “culture” thing, and that the potential implementation of these sports will only increase the popularity of the Olympics.
Andrew Harbour: I think it will bring a lot more excitement to the Olympics. It would definitely bring a bigger fan base, get a bigger fan base involved and just get a a different culture, get a bigger, more involved culture.
Harbour explained.
Harbour: I want to see the best of the best, whoever brings it. So whoever that may be, just the best talent, bring it.
Junior communications major Isabella Grust took a different approach for the new potential games. Grust looked at the proposal as a way for athletes to receive the recognition they deserve regardless of how popular their sport may be.
Isabella Grust: Honestly, I think it’d be a great idea, especially because I feel like those specific sports are not highly looked at, especially in the at the professional level. And I feel like it will bring, you know, maybe more fans to the games and kind of include those sports in a better way. And I feel like they deserve, you know, the same opportunity that, you know, more popular sports as of right now around the country deserve.
USC professor and NBC’s own Seth Rubinroit realized that the lasting impact these sports can do for the games as a whole, given that the Olympics is one of the biggest global events in the world.
Seth Rubinroit: This is a huge opportunity for for those sports to grow even more. The Olympics is such a such a big global event in the United States. It’s going to be the number one show on television for two and a half weeks around the world. Millions, if not billions of people are going to tune in, which can be just a great platform for these burgeoning sports to grow.
Rubinroit also knows that if these sports do get approved, that the coverage of the events not only spotlight the athletes but spotlight the sports as whole.
Rubinroit: It’ll be a big educational thing, too. I think that, you know, I think that that half of that is just, you know, at NBC is going to be incumbent on us to educate the audience on, you know, we’ve, we’ve done a great job of introducing people to figure skating that they’re watch figure skating before. And I think the same thing’s going to be need to happen with with , you know, cricket as well and even, you know, lacrosse to some extent.
With the proposal already sent out, it’s only a matter of time before a decision is made. If the proposal goes through, it’ll undergo another approval session in Mumbai, India later this month. Who knows? Maybe you’ll play some squash after the 2028 Olympics.