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La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, October 10, 2023, p. a12
The NFL’s efforts to become a global sport received a big boost when the organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games presented a proposal that includes flag football in the program of the first summer event in the United States in 32 years.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is due to vote on the proposal during a meeting this week in Mumbai, India.
Los Angeles’ proposal added baseball and softball, which have been in and out of the program for decades. Three other sports were also added: cricket, lacrosse and squash.
Cricket marks a contrast with flag football. It is a sport virtually unknown in the United States, but immensely popular in various regions of the world.
Casey Wasserman, CEO of the Los Angeles Olympics, said the new sports are innovative and community-friendly, played in schoolyards, community centers and parks across the United States and around the world.
American football is the most popular sport in the United States. The fact that its less violent version – instead of knocking down the rival, the defending team has to remove one of the two flags worn at the waist to simulate the tackle – is part of the Olympic program is a great victory for the NFL.
At last year’s World Games, the United States men’s team took gold and Mexico won the women’s title by beating the Americans in the final.
The NFL remains very interested in growing its participation and audience. One of the topics that has generated the most attention this season has been the visits of Taylor Swift, the pop star, to two Kansas City Chiefs games to see her friend, tight end Travis Kelce.
While flag football will be familiar to spectators in Los Angeles, cricket will have a long way to go. Very popular in India, Great Britain and Australia, which will host the Summer Olympics in Brisbane in 2032, almost no one knows about it in the United States. The Twenty20 game, a shorter version of cricket, has been proposed to be played for Los Angeles.
Cricket was once on the Olympic programme, in Paris 1900.
He breakdancing It was left out of the Los Angeles program, so it will be its debut and farewell in Paris next year. Kickboxing, karate and motor competitions were also not included.
2023-10-10 08:21:26
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