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
| Sport | 2024 | 2028 |
| Athletics | 1,810 | 1,810 |
| Aquatics | 1,370 | 1,370 |
| Cycling | 514 | 514 |
| Football | 504 | 504 |
| Rowing | 502 | 502 |
| Hockey | 384 | 384 |
| Volleyball | 384 | 384 |
| Basketball | 352 | 384 |
| Judo | 372 | 372 |
| Shooting | 340 | 340 |
| Handball | 336 | 336 |
| Sailing | 330 | 330 |
| Canoe | 318 | 318 |
| Gymnastics | 318 | 318 |
| Rugby | 288 | 288 |
| Wrestling | 288 | 288 |
| Boxing | 248 | 248 |
| Baseball/Softball | Not Contested | 234 |
| Fencing | 212 | 212 |
| Equestrian | 200 | 200 |
| Cricket | Not Contested | 180 |
| Badminton | 172 | 172 |
| Table Tennis | 172 | 172 |
| Tennis | 172 | 172 |
| Lacrosse | Not Contested | 132 |
| Archery | 128 | 128 |
| Taekwondo | 128 | 128 |
| Golf | 120 | 120 |
| Weightlifting | 120 | 120 |
| Flag Football | Not Contested | 120 |
| Triathlon | 110 | 110 |
| Skateboarding | 88 | 88 |
| Sport Climbing | 68 | 76 |
| Modern Pentathlon | 72 | 64 |
| Surfing | 48 | 48 |
| Squash | Not Contested | 32 |
| Breaking | 32 | Not Contested |
| Total | 10,500 | 11,198 |
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 was 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.
Jeez Modern Pentathlon, wyd? They have the only roster to be REDUCED (but not eliminated)
Should be eliminated. There are maybe 300 competitors world wide (I’m guessing)?
It might be different by the time the games takes place, but according to online statistics, both Rio and Tokyo had over 11,200 athletes.
I thought golf would have more than 120. They didn’t add to the roster despite the inclusion of the new team event.
In Los Angeles it means one male will hang around after the individual event to play the 2 days of mixed, and one female will play mixed before her competition.
It’s a mini Ryder Cup format of alternate shot one day and four ball the other day. I guess it’s designed to make golf nearly continuous instead of a 4-day lull. No question it gives weaker teams a chance to pull a surprise in mixed, given only 36 holes.
they should add more spots for swimmers.
This could alleviate the roster shortages from many countries.
Other than the US, I don’t think any other country had a roster shortage, part of that might have been because they used harder qualifying times than the WA A-cut and part of it might be that they don’t have the depth that the US has.
Ok I already saw this with the 50 strokes aproval but this just confirms it – why is the IOC doubling down on adding onto the bloat of the games when it is already scaring away future bids to the point of it being an existential concern for the games themselves?
As a swim fan I like the addition of course, but I find it hard to not be concerned about the IOCs lack of responsibility towards ensuring a stable future for the Olympic movement – between the absurdity of their logistical demands and dicy geopolitics it’s quite possible it could just fade away with a whimper soon, and they just seem oblivious
with no additional roster spots, 50’s stroke dilute the competition. American #2 who could medal in a 200 or 100 left off the team. Hurts the competition.
I see what you mean, but I think that not increasing the roster quota could actually give more “prestige” to the 50 stroke winners. What could happen is that for large roster countries like the US and Australia, the 50 second spot will go the 100 top qualifiers at Trials, which would in turn lift the quality of competition during the Olympics.
Also, I would expect that most universality quota qualifiers from smaller swimming countries will be in the 50 strokes with times that may actually be B times, so the field in the 100 and 200 races would get smaller with only those with A times. I for one prefer that the Olympics have very few B times qualifiers.… Read more »
Did you look at the B-times from the last Olympics (not the World Championships), they were very close to the A-cut since only 0.5% was added to the A-cut. Many or most of the Universitality swimmers did not have the B-cut times.
I don’t remember the B times from last Olympics, but if that was the case, then I expect it would be almost impossible to get a B cut in an event other than the 50s. I do remember that most universality spots were in the 50 free, so, if anything, those spots would be more spread out to the other stroke 50s in 2028.
New sports bring an increasing number of athletes. Baseball, lacrosse, flag football, etc… I don’t understand IOC. Karate disappeared after Tokyo 2020. Breakdance disappears after Paris 2024. Will these sports disappear after LA 2028 ? Probably. And what about Brisbane 2032 ? Australian football ? What is the interest to bring a sport for one edition and to erase, cancel it for the next games ?
The host country can ask for some sports to be included but they might disappear after being part of one Olympics. Baseball and Softball have been part of the Olympics in the past so they might be part again after LA. Cricket is big in Australia so that might be part of the 2032 games, but not sure after that. Flag football – I have not idea.
Although LA 2028 has added swimming events, does the same number of participants mean that the chances of Olympic qualification through B mark are rarer? WA warned before last year’s Olympics that because of the impending full quota, WA may not approve bid B entry. In that case, I think maybe bid b can be deleted 🤔🤔
I like to see that swimmers that qualify for the Olympics via relay spots (relay only swimmers) being able to swim events where a country has open B-spots available (so an easier B-cut, maybe 1.5% – World Champs seems use 3.5% this year) and that would add some more fairly good swimmers to several events. It would not make any difference for some of the top countries like the US, Japan, Australia, China etc.
I have not looked at the numbers but these athletes are already at the games taking up roster spots, why not have them compete?
I like to see that swimmers that qualify for the Olympics via relay spots (relay only swimmers) being able to swim events where a country has open B-spots available (so an easier B-cut, maybe 1.5% – World Champs seems use 3.5% this year) and that would add some more fairly good swimmers to several events. It would not make any difference for some of the top countries like the US, Japan, Australia, China etc.
I have not looked at the numbers but these athletes are already at the games taking up roster spots, why not have them compete?