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LA 2028

Host-selected sports do not automatically persist. Several disciplines added under this mechanism have appeared once and vanished, which creates a difficult incentive for athletes: four years of specialised preparation for a competition that may not exist in the next cycle. Squash's inclusion after decades of campaigning is the strongest test of whether the mechanism can produce lasting change or only temporary showcases. The federations that treat 2028 as a permanent arrival rather than a single opportunity are the ones most likely to be disappointed.

• Flag football — the non-contact, five-a-side variant of American football, with a ready-made domestic audience and the sport's professional infrastructure behind it.
• Cricket, in the twenty-over format, which brings the single largest television market outside the host country into the Games' commercial calculations.
• Squash, a long-standing candidate finally admitted after repeated unsuccessful bids across previous cycles.
• Lacrosse in its six-a-side form, with deep roots in North America and a compressed format built for broadcast windows.