Remember playing flag football during grade school? With potential new Olympic sports, you might have a chance at being the next famed Olympian.
During the International Olympic Committee meeting on Monday, organizers proposed adding squash, cricket, baseball and softball, lacrosse and flag football to the LA 2028 Olympics lineup. From ancient Greece to present day, the Olympic games are evolving every four years and redefining the Olympic standards.
To the first Olympians of ancient Greece, flag football may have been an outlier amongst power sports like javelin throwing, jumping and foot racing. Fast forward to the 21st century, and many USC students are in full support of watching people chaotically run around a field and rip colored flags from their opponents waist.
“I think that would definitely be a really interesting change for the Olympics, considering that it’s such a traditional sporting event and bringing in something like flag football would probably have a lot of controversy,” said Hannah Rotchschild, a freshman studying cognitive science. “But I think it could be a lot of fun.”
The first modern Olympics in 1896 welcomed classic sports like track and field, swimming, gymnastics, weight lifting, wrestling, fencing, cycling and tennis. As time moves forward, the traditional games still exist, but there is also more opportunity to broaden the definition of sport and what it means to be an athlete in the present day.
“It does legitimize certain sports that I think for a long time have had very healthy fan bases and healthy infrastructures where this a lot of room for growth for an athlete,” said Fernando Hurtado, an Annenberg professor specializing in digital journalism.
In order to be invited to the ceremonies, flag football and other candidates are considered under five criteria with multiple subdivisions — Olympic proposal, value added to the Olympic movement, institutional matters, popularity and business model. One of the concerns for sports such as flag football is whether or not there are enough countries and athletes to participate to make the games competitive.
“I’ve spent a bunch of time abroad, and I know what people know about American football,” said Charles Hastings, a junior studying English literature. “It’s not something that they’re completely in the dark on. Same goes for lacrosse and softball.”
The NFL is one of the communities pushing for flag football to take the Olympic field because it is such an all-inclusive sport and is played in more than 100 countries. The sport is becoming a favorite for all ages and genders and not just in the U.S.
“It is a bit more inclusive because it allows people who don’t want to be in contact sports to be in the Olympics still and do sports like flag football or what not, because it’s also just a safer way of doing things,” said Antonio McVeigh, a freshman on the USC flag football team. “Not everyone wants to be tackled around or hit, sometimes some flag pulls are enough for somebody.”
Among many rules to become an Olympic game, the Britannica notes the sport must increase the “value and appeal” of the games and maintain its modern traditions. The new shift in games is definitely favoring entertainment, checking off appealing to a crowd and bolstering the community.
“We also have to think about it from a production and TV media standpoint. And these also just make excellent TV as well. So I don’t think it’s necessary that the standard is changing. I think it certainly does move with the trends and kind of what we’re seeing in the world today,” Hurtado said.