Baseball nears return to Olympics as IOC approves five new sports

Baseball will return to the Olympic program for the first time in seven years.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved five new sports - baseball and softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash - as proposed by the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games Organizing Committee at its Executive Board meeting in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday.

The final decision on the Olympic program for Los Angeles will be made at the IOC Session in Mumbai from July 15-17. It is highly unlikely that the outcome will change as the Executive Board, the highest decision-making body, has approved them.

The IOC recognized the five new sports as official for the LA Games only.

IOC President Thomas Bach said: "The choice of these five new sports is linked to the sporting culture of the United States. They will showcase iconic American sports to the world."

Baseball was featured at the Beijing 2008 Games, but was dropped from the London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games before returning to the program at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.

Baseball returns to the Olympic program after a seven-year absence at Paris 2024.

Cricket returns to the Olympic program for the first time in 128 years since Paris 1900.

Lacrosse will return to the Olympic program for the third time in 120 years, following its debut in St. Louis in 1904 and London in 1908.

Flag football and squash will make their Olympic debuts.

The IOC added five new sports to the list of 28 sports it adopted last February, including soccer, golf, basketball, hockey, and tennis.

The IOC Executive Board did not adopt boxing, modern pentathlon, and weightlifting.

The IOC, which suspended the International Boxing Association (IBA) as the sport's world governing body for financial mismanagement and officiating irregularities, did not make a decision on the adoption of these sports because there is no other governing body to replace the IBA.

The IOC told the International Union of Modern Pentathlon (UIMP) that it could not be included unless it replaced horse riding with steeplechasing.

It advised the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) to delegate anti-doping control to the International Testing Agency (ITA). 19가이드03