IOC Approves Record Athlete Quota For 2028 Olympics, First Time With More Women Than Men

By James Sutherland on SwimSwam

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has finalized the athlete quotas for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, declaring the upcoming Games the first that will feature more female athletes than male.

The IOC outlined the record 36-sport Olympic program and announced that the 2028 Games will feature 11,198 athletes, the most in history, with 5,333 female athletes and 5,167 male.

The athlete quota in the core 31 sports sits at 10,500, matching the total from Paris 2024, and the additional 698 spots come by way of the five new sports that will be contested in LA.

OLYMPIC ATHLETE QUOTAS: 2024 VS 2028

Changes To Core Sports:

• For the first time in history, all team sports will have at least the same number of women’s teams as men’s teams.
• Water polo adds two women’s teams, making it 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams. However, the quota for aquatics remains the same at 1,370 athletes. The male quota drops from 648 in 2024 to 637 in 2028, while the women’s increases from 722 to 733. (Specific aquatic sports quotas for LA 28 aren’t yet available.)
• The athlete quota for aquatics notably stays the same despite swimming adding six new events (three men’s and three women’s) with the addition of the stroke 50s.
• There will be more women’s teams (16) than men’s (12) in football (soccer) for the first time ever.
• There has been an extra weight class added in women’s boxing to “ensure full gender parity across events,” though quotas will remain the same as 2024.
• Archery, athletics, golf, gymnastics, rowing coastal beach sprint and table tennis will all see the addition of a new mixed team event.
• The 3×3 basketball event has been expanded from eight teams per gender to 12 teams per gender, resutling in basketball’s total quota increasing from 352 to 384 athletes.
• Sport climbing’s quota increased by eight athletes after the boulder and lead events were announced to be contested as separate medal events in 2028 after they were previously combined.
• Besides basketball and sport climbing, the only other core sport to have a quota chance from Paris was modern pentathlon, which decreases from 72 to 64. It was almost left off the program for 2028, but will be included after it waas confirmed that the horse riding portion is being replaced with obstacle racing in Los Angeles.

New Sports:

• Five new sports will be added to the Olympic schedule in Los Angeles, resulting in the increase from 10,500 athletes in Paris to 11,198 in Los Angeles.
• Baseball/softball will include 234 total athletes, making its return to the Games after last being contested in Tokyo.
• Cricket, which will appear at the Olympics for just the second time ever after debuting in 1900, brings 180 athletes.
• Lacrosse, previously on the Olympic program in 1904 and 1908, brings 132 athletes.
• Making their Olympic debuts, flag football (120) and squash (32) bring 152 athletes combined.
• Breaking, which had 32 athletes in its Olympic debut last year, is the only sport that won’t be contested in Los Angeles after it was in Paris.

You can find the full 2028 quotas here.

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