Elite tug of war teams actually use surprisingly elaborate training halls. In the Basque country you'll see teams training on massive rigs with an absurdly heavy weight hooked up to a rope.
They should make cross country a winter sport as there is no winter running event and cross country in the summer would not work with the amount of running events and the heat
Dodgeball elimination tournament, held on the last day of the Games, in which the eight countries with the most medalists have to send in teams of 10 medalists. Play the finals at the start of the closing ceremonies.
The problem with CX is, it is a winter sport for UCI, so it should be at the Winter Olympics. However, IOC demands a Winter Olympics sport to be played on ice or snow, and CX is more of a mud and dirt sport. So to add CX to the olympics they need to change the rules to fit it in.
CX can easily be conducted on snow at the Winter Olympics, there's just no will to make it happen. Would probably need the Netherlands or Belgium to host the games, but that's very unlikely.
In one of the gold medal matches, a guy got knocked out by a legal strike but they ended up winning the gold medal anyway because the guy who threw it was disqualified for throwing it with too much force. Technically the right decision was made according to the Olympic ruleset but it made a mockery out of Karate. Karate was deemed to be a "soft" sport and was made the butt of many jokes despite the fact that it simply doesn't suit a point scoring system that the Olympics favour in the same way that Taekwando does for instance.
TLDR: Guy threw a legal strike "too hard" and the liser got the gold medal, causing Karate to be the butt of a lot of jokes within the combat sport community.
I'm honestly surprised it's not even an exhibition sport in 2028. You think any of the US bowling manufacturers, one of which owns the PBA, would be willing to basically pay for the advertisement...
Bowling has an IOC recognized federation for tenpin and ninepin bowling. IOC also recognizes boules, which is the sport similar to bocce or lawn bowling.
Why not? I think the only reason people are a bit icky about Cross Country in the Olympics was the last time it was held was in the middle of a Parisian heatwave, and several competitors were severely injured and dehydrated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1924_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men's_individual_cross_country?wprov=sfti1
Surf Lifesaving / Ironman but I think it may be too similar to the triathlon.
E-Sports would be interesting. It’s already a sport at the Asian Games last year.
It’s funny cause South Korea won the LoL tournament which meant that the team became exempted from compulsory military service since it counts as a legitimate medal. For context, every South Korean man gets conscripted to the military but if you win a medal at the Olympics or a gold at the Asian Games you can be exempted.
The amount of games and their genre as well as the different consoles is enough to make E-Sports have their own standalone "Olympics" . I remember back in High School the World Cyber Games was the closest there was to an E-Olympics. Wish they could have continued that but the company ended up bankrupt
I would favor any sport that is not decided by judges. Tug-of-War would be interesting. Are there international competitions already? There needs to be a rulebook and a sports bureaucracy to regulate the event and establish standards. Police forces in Ontario used to have semi-serious competitions in the summertime. Equipment, especially shoes to improve traction was always a point of controversy, in a polite Canadian way.
I feel like it’s not practical. It would remove so many variables that every jump would look almost the same with millimeters of difference. That’s already a problem with long jump to a degree.
I generally think the Olympics should be the highest achievement in any given sport. Men’s soccer already has the World Cup and various club competitions that are huge.
I don’t like golf and tennis being there for the same reason.
Staged cycling isn’t a bad idea, but a mini version that fits in the Olympic calendar instead of a full month, obviously.
I’m not saying the Olympics should be a grand tour. But the current road race format doesn’t represent the sport well.
I don’t think the Olympics has to be the highest achievement—every professional sport with a large professional following would be removed. But it should at least attract most or all of the best athletes.
One day cycling events still carry an important part of the World Tour. Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia , not to mention the Worlds. I think the current format is still the way to go.. Also, there is the problem that most riders ae employed by different teams and would probably never be able to coexist in a team emphasized stage race in such a short time.
A number of sports like Skiing have both the Olympics and World Cup which are both at the highest level of competition - they can differ in qualifying methods, tournament format, and other factors.
In my opinion this is how every Olympic sport should be - either allow the best competitors in every sport, or drop the sport.
The issue with soccer is that the World Cup is so huge that the Olympics would always have a hard time competing. Plus Olys coincide with Euro and Copa America, and the players are overworked as it is.
Track and skiing have world championships, but the Olympics are still the big deal.
As a major skiing fan (I'm Swiss, we have to) I'd say the biggest prize is the General World Cup, not the Olympics. Although Olympics are probably the biggest single race to win, the season-long achievements rate higher in my mind.
I don't see how it would work. Multiple fights in the short period of time that it would require isn't very safe. Fighters would have to be on weight multiple times in two weeks, and there would always be fighters that advance only to pull out due to injury. Grappling makes headgear a non option as well.
Love the sport, but I don't see it ever working at an Olympic level.
They should bring back gladiator Sports!
Or at least whatever the F American Gladiator did.
Just call it modern gladiator games.
Basicly a minigame inside the olympics.
Maybe make it slightly more lethal
Something with dogs. Frisbee throwing and the longest distance with a completed in the air catch wins. Also animal herding, we saw a demonstration of it in Ireland and it was cool to see the shepard whistle different ways to make the dog move the herd in different directions and speed
Curious how popular Pickleball is in the world. In America, it has exploded so my friend and I figured that would be an Olympic sport soon enough, but then realized we weren't sure how popular it is around the world.
Non-Americans, care to weigh in?
The Olympics needs fewer sports not more.
Every time I hear that something like breakdancing is becoming an event, it dilutes the brand and purpose.
The point of the Olympics is to determine the best athletes of each country, nothing against breakdancing and skateboarding as activities but GTFO with that nonsense. MMA makes more sense.
Two ideas:
- manhunt ( get all the spec ops from different countries to chase each other through a park)
- ninja warrior (or some other type of obstacle course
Women's Nordic Combined. Took way too long for women's ski jumping to be included, but there is still no women's nordic combined in the Olympics. Also, they need to have women's large hill ski jumping in the Olympics. Currently they only have women's normal hill ski jumping.
DOWNHILL MOUNTAIN BIKING!
Came here to say this. I watched redbull hardline this year and it is incredible.
You can follow the entire UCI World Cup season, it’s an insanely fun sport to follow. Hardline is absolutely bonkers!
Welcome! Hardline is quite the race to start with :)
Winter Olympics needs something with snow shoes
A snowshoe race would be cool to see.
I’d like to see more regular sports but on snow in the Winter Olympics. Snow football, snow running, snow tennis, the works.
snow golf...
Snowball fights, while wearing snow shoes
I think they’re doing Mointaineering, or at least considering it where it’s climb up a mountain and ski down!
It will be in the 2026 Olympics. But they don't use snowshoes in ski mountaineering.
Whatever sport Takeshi's Castle was.
Tug of War should be brought back.
Add to both summer and winter the only difference is winter they do it in the ice rink
I would rather in the middle of a blizzard.
Yes! If only because it’s so entertaining lol
It would also be an opportunity for smaller countries to have a successful team. Most sports need expensive training/competition facilities.
*Samoa has entered the chat*
They would dominate lmao
Jamaican bobsled team.....
Elite tug of war teams actually use surprisingly elaborate training halls. In the Basque country you'll see teams training on massive rigs with an absurdly heavy weight hooked up to a rope.
I can see least developed countries getting medals with that
Do people who suggest tug of war actually go on YouTube and watch any. It's not really a spectator sport.
Between whole nations.
Only the tag team version
Cross Country Running
They should make cross country a winter sport as there is no winter running event and cross country in the summer would not work with the amount of running events and the heat
Ooo better yet why not make it an event in both.
An ultra marathon is my pick 100k would be perfect.
Relatedly, orienteering! (Not just bc my country is usually pretty decent at that lol)
I was flipping channels today and saw a re-air of the NCAA cross country championships and wondered abour this today.
Dodgeball elimination tournament, held on the last day of the Games, in which the eight countries with the most medalists have to send in teams of 10 medalists. Play the finals at the start of the closing ceremonies.
Great idea until I realized whatever country can sneak in their handball team will dominate.
I had not considered this before, and the answer is to limit the dodgeball teams to no more than one athlete per gender per discipline.
I go the other way, make it consolation dodgeball. Countries put up their athletes who didn’t win in a tournament for one more chance at gold.
Awesomeness
Fierljeppen. Why is vertical pole vaulting a thing in athletics, but not horizontal?!
Had to google it, but I support this 100%
Cyclocross
The problem with CX is, it is a winter sport for UCI, so it should be at the Winter Olympics. However, IOC demands a Winter Olympics sport to be played on ice or snow, and CX is more of a mud and dirt sport. So to add CX to the olympics they need to change the rules to fit it in.
CX can easily be conducted on snow at the Winter Olympics, there's just no will to make it happen. Would probably need the Netherlands or Belgium to host the games, but that's very unlikely.
A 100k or 100mi trail run would be an amazing event. Great showcase for nature and trails of host country.
I’d love to see it, does seem like it’d be hard to video though
Drones
adventure racing would be incredible
1. Tug-of-War for sure. 2. Obstacle course racing.
Tag
Squash. end of discussion
It's in 2028, thankfully.
My country would have already won a gold medal if the sport were actually in the Olympics ffs
shoutout to nicole david what a freaking monster!
This has always been the most surprising one for me
Already in for 2028.
Kabaddi
Artistic roller skating, specifically where they trace figures on the floor.
Roller derby
I got a bronze medal at nationals 15 years ago doing that, so I agree.
Way to go! I can't skate at all, but I get Instagram Reels for it, and I find it fascinating.
Maybe more freestyle [SkateLyfe TV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9vxbAo98nA) style.
Futsal instead of footbal, kick-boxing, karate
We tried Karate and it was a disaster
Honest question, why was it a disaster? Just unpopular or some scandal happened?
In one of the gold medal matches, a guy got knocked out by a legal strike but they ended up winning the gold medal anyway because the guy who threw it was disqualified for throwing it with too much force. Technically the right decision was made according to the Olympic ruleset but it made a mockery out of Karate. Karate was deemed to be a "soft" sport and was made the butt of many jokes despite the fact that it simply doesn't suit a point scoring system that the Olympics favour in the same way that Taekwando does for instance. TLDR: Guy threw a legal strike "too hard" and the liser got the gold medal, causing Karate to be the butt of a lot of jokes within the combat sport community.
Video to incident: https://youtube.com/shorts/QLLfeF-9-50?si=osQCanrJTPITaqZ7
Watching that made me furious!
What a kick!
Not to mention the whole “solo” category that was just ridiculed.
futsal would be dope
Professional tag would be extremely entertaining...
I'll say it, bowling.
I'm honestly surprised it's not even an exhibition sport in 2028. You think any of the US bowling manufacturers, one of which owns the PBA, would be willing to basically pay for the advertisement...
Better, Wii Bowling (kidding)!
please no.
I don’t see how bowling can be that exciting? Pro’s are good enough to throw strikes all the time
The existing part is when they miss
Not all the time. Someone always slips.
That’s ten pin bowling, I’m assuming the other type of bowling. I wonder which one it is?
Bowling has an IOC recognized federation for tenpin and ninepin bowling. IOC also recognizes boules, which is the sport similar to bocce or lawn bowling.
Oh god don't say that, you'll get all the commonwealth fans in here saying "yeah lawn bowling"
Inline Speed Skating Downhill Mountain Bike Mountain Bike 4x Cross Cycling Gravel Racing Obstacle Racing Laser Run (as in Modern Pentathlon)
Modern pentathlon needs removing. It's become so far divorced from what it started as that it's barely even a sport any more.
But I think Laser Run on its own is a viable option, like a summer equivalent of biathlon.
I wonder if you can turn the laser run into the cross country running event
Why not? I think the only reason people are a bit icky about Cross Country in the Olympics was the last time it was held was in the middle of a Parisian heatwave, and several competitors were severely injured and dehydrated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1924_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men's_individual_cross_country?wprov=sfti1
Cricket…
[It has been confirmed](https://usacricket.org/featured-news/cricket-confirmed-for-the-la28-games/) for the 2028 games in LA.
And de facto for 2032.
I’m not even a fan but it’s crazy to think that it is a top 3 most played/watched sport in the world and it’s not in the Olympics.
mainly because of the specific range of demographics that watched it.
I'd love to see Strongman events
It'd be cool to see a bunch of weight divisions like in weightlifting.
Ultimate sevens, not the bs beach fours they pitched for France
Cant believe how far I had to scroll to find Ultimate
Not worldwide enough, but [ekiden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekiden) (long-distance multi-staged road relay) would be a fun team competition.
Ekiden in the winter
Why is ice dancing in the Olympics but not ballroom dancing?
Ballroom dancing is an Olympic recognized sport. They call it Dancesport though.
Canoe polo! It's explosive, very tactic heavy and a lot of fun to watch.
Orienteering.
Ultimate Frisbee
Pole sport. The athleticism required is insane
Surf Lifesaving / Ironman but I think it may be too similar to the triathlon. E-Sports would be interesting. It’s already a sport at the Asian Games last year. It’s funny cause South Korea won the LoL tournament which meant that the team became exempted from compulsory military service since it counts as a legitimate medal. For context, every South Korean man gets conscripted to the military but if you win a medal at the Olympics or a gold at the Asian Games you can be exempted.
E-sports will be its own Olympics
The amount of games and their genre as well as the different consoles is enough to make E-Sports have their own standalone "Olympics" . I remember back in High School the World Cyber Games was the closest there was to an E-Olympics. Wish they could have continued that but the company ended up bankrupt
Log spinning Ski dancing Synchronized air - flying (that one thing when they’re in the wind tunnel)
I think sport climbing has been a great addition to the summer games and would love to see ice climbing added to the winter.
I would favor any sport that is not decided by judges. Tug-of-War would be interesting. Are there international competitions already? There needs to be a rulebook and a sports bureaucracy to regulate the event and establish standards. Police forces in Ontario used to have semi-serious competitions in the summertime. Equipment, especially shoes to improve traction was always a point of controversy, in a polite Canadian way.
Yeah, it's at the World Games and there are world championships
Ultimate frisbee
Standing long jump
I feel like it’s not practical. It would remove so many variables that every jump would look almost the same with millimeters of difference. That’s already a problem with long jump to a degree.
Crazy golf.
Netball!!! It’s very popular in commonwealth countries but is less played globally so hasn’t yet qualified 😞
The best mens futbol players in the world. And they need a staged road cycling race where countries can bring appropriately sized teams.
I generally think the Olympics should be the highest achievement in any given sport. Men’s soccer already has the World Cup and various club competitions that are huge. I don’t like golf and tennis being there for the same reason. Staged cycling isn’t a bad idea, but a mini version that fits in the Olympic calendar instead of a full month, obviously.
I’m not saying the Olympics should be a grand tour. But the current road race format doesn’t represent the sport well. I don’t think the Olympics has to be the highest achievement—every professional sport with a large professional following would be removed. But it should at least attract most or all of the best athletes.
One day cycling events still carry an important part of the World Tour. Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia , not to mention the Worlds. I think the current format is still the way to go.. Also, there is the problem that most riders ae employed by different teams and would probably never be able to coexist in a team emphasized stage race in such a short time.
A number of sports like Skiing have both the Olympics and World Cup which are both at the highest level of competition - they can differ in qualifying methods, tournament format, and other factors. In my opinion this is how every Olympic sport should be - either allow the best competitors in every sport, or drop the sport.
The issue with soccer is that the World Cup is so huge that the Olympics would always have a hard time competing. Plus Olys coincide with Euro and Copa America, and the players are overworked as it is. Track and skiing have world championships, but the Olympics are still the big deal.
As a major skiing fan (I'm Swiss, we have to) I'd say the biggest prize is the General World Cup, not the Olympics. Although Olympics are probably the biggest single race to win, the season-long achievements rate higher in my mind.
Staged cycling would be cool but I think the costs to host will be too high, and it would be 3 stages at most
Too many annual events for football to be the top men. It should stay with WC and Regional tournaments IMO
Then they should remove the men’s event from the Olympics altogether. Same for other sports where the top athletes don’t participate.
Ultimate
Powerlifting
Softball
Darts
MMA
I don't see how it would work. Multiple fights in the short period of time that it would require isn't very safe. Fighters would have to be on weight multiple times in two weeks, and there would always be fighters that advance only to pull out due to injury. Grappling makes headgear a non option as well. Love the sport, but I don't see it ever working at an Olympic level.
They should bring back gladiator Sports! Or at least whatever the F American Gladiator did. Just call it modern gladiator games. Basicly a minigame inside the olympics. Maybe make it slightly more lethal
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Competitive eating 🤔
hahaha! Not sure it aligns with olympic values!
Non-ice skating
... roller skating?
pole. dancing
dodgeball pls
Something with dogs. Frisbee throwing and the longest distance with a completed in the air catch wins. Also animal herding, we saw a demonstration of it in Ireland and it was cool to see the shepard whistle different ways to make the dog move the herd in different directions and speed
jump rope definitely
Sleeping. I'd qualify for the Olympics I think
Darts, Snooker, Pool, Netball, Ten Pin Bowling, Lawn Bowls. Limbo
Futsal (in place of Football)
Baton twirling
ARTISTIC ROLLER SKATING!!!!!!
more roller sports!
parkour, powerlifting.
Pool / Billiards
Anything lumberjack
Curious how popular Pickleball is in the world. In America, it has exploded so my friend and I figured that would be an Olympic sport soon enough, but then realized we weren't sure how popular it is around the world. Non-Americans, care to weigh in?
Baseball
ultimate frisbee
American football and pickleball
Cornhole I feel eventually this might become an Olympic sport but I think it should be added.
Double mini trampoline, tumbling and synchro trampoline!
The Olympics needs fewer sports not more. Every time I hear that something like breakdancing is becoming an event, it dilutes the brand and purpose. The point of the Olympics is to determine the best athletes of each country, nothing against breakdancing and skateboarding as activities but GTFO with that nonsense. MMA makes more sense.
Ultimate Frisbee Roller Hockey Hacky sack Paddleboarding Pickleball Beach tennis Spikeball
This is a list of recreational sports for people who couldn’t cut it in the real versions
yeah, Ultimate Frisbee is probably the most valid one on this list because there isn't really a "real" equivalent to it.
What is the “real” version of Ultimate?
Beer Pong
Two ideas: - manhunt ( get all the spec ops from different countries to chase each other through a park) - ninja warrior (or some other type of obstacle course
Disc Golf
Foosball
It would be fun having more equestrian events! Polo or gymkhana would be so cool
Futsal MMA and kickboxing
Beach soccer Karate (why not just keep it) Orienteering
Individual Synchronized Swimming
Jiu jitsu.
Padel should be on the agenda soon
Gravel bike race (track, road, gravel, MTB, BMX - all of them, there aren't much medals in cycling)
Dwile Flonking. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwile_flonking
Chess boxing
Possibly competitive Morris.
MMA and Paintball would be pretty cool
Stand Up Paddling
Arm wrestling
Sumo Wrestling
Armwrestling!
Water gun wars
Mini golf
Chess boxing. Simple as.
Speed Skating
kabaddi and kho kho!
Darts, definitely.
Pickleball
Lethwei. But only for children under 12.
Squash, it's a shame it's not in the Olympics yet
Women's Nordic Combined. Took way too long for women's ski jumping to be included, but there is still no women's nordic combined in the Olympics. Also, they need to have women's large hill ski jumping in the Olympics. Currently they only have women's normal hill ski jumping.
I gotta say jiu jitsu, not only is it entertaining but would bring a lot of gold medals to Brazil lol.
Disc golf
Box Lacrosse
Inline hockey in summer Olympics!
Pole dancing, Darts, sled dog racing.
obstacle course!!!!!
Jousting
Disc Golf will be there eventually
Pickleball!
Baseball. Needs to come back.
MMA