After the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that the athlete quota for squash at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be 16 men and 16 women, the long-anticipated Olympic debut of this racket sport is set to be somewhat low-key. This quota is only half of the initially proposed number.
Although the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics aim to be the largest in history, with more medal events and athlete quotas set for sports like climbing and water polo, squash currently appears to be the smallest sport in terms of scale at the next Summer Olympics.
Previously, the IOC's Olympic Program Commission carried out an extensive review with the aim of hosting a sustainable and cost-effective Olympic Games. In order to control the growth in scale and the pressure it exerts on resources, the global sports organization set a strict upper limit on the number of athletes in its Agenda 2020.
While the IOC recognizes the importance of introducing new sports to the Olympic program, its goal is to keep the overall size and scope of the Olympics within a manageable range. Five new sports have been added to the program of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which will bring the total number of athletes to 11,198, making it the largest Olympic Games in history.
