New sports at the Olympics: cricket, baseball, squash, lacrosse and flag-football?!

The International Olympic Committee surprised again. We are not sure if it is really a pleasant surprise, although there is no doubt that cricket, which is the number one sport in India, will make many people happy in several parts of the planet, so the second most populous country in the world might finally be able to welcome its first Olympic medal.

But back to the news itself, the International Olympic Committee has approved five new sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. These are: baseball, cricket, squash, lacrosse and flag football?!

On the other hand, boxing as a sport with an incredible Olympic tradition is still in question due to the fact that the IOC no longer recognizes the International Boxing Association (IBA) as relevant, and since there is no other official organization, this will still be discussed.

Hence the mentioned five sports. Among them, the biggest unknown is flag football, a less brutal variant of American football, because the point is not to knock down the opponent, but to remove the "flag" attached to his hip. A very popular sport in the USA, it is also played in Canada, Mexico, Panama, a little bit in Italy, Denmark, Austria...

The situation is similar with lacrosse, in which 14 world championships have been played so far, and in all the finals - with the exception of England in 1974 - the USA, Canada and Australia played exclusively, the last time back in 1994.

Cricket certainly has its audience, but even in that sport we only have 12 recognized associations, although one is extremely unusual. So there are the associations of Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and finally the West Antilles, which is represented by cricketers from Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada and several others.

And baseball (softball when it comes to mixed teams) has its fanatics, also in a limited number of countries, although in addition to America it is also popular in Japan, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba...

Finally, squash, usually considered as a form of recreation, although it can also be very tiring, in recent years it has been dominated by competitors from Egypt, although occasionally those from Australia, less often England, Germany, France... Pakistanis dominated long ago, but that are some past times.

However, all of these sports were primarily chosen because they are more or less popular in the US. However, none are globally popular but it will bring joy to those parts of the world.