Modernizing the Games to engage the young audience seems to be the goal of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), something that the German Thomas Bach already began to metamorphose after becoming president of the organization a decade ago. The Olympic fencing champion in Montreal 1976 leads the drive to change the concept of Olympic sport with the inclusion of sports that will connect with new generations.
If in Tokyo 2020 the surprise was Skateboarding, where the Spanish Andrea Benítez was the first national representative in the history of this sport, and in Paris 2024 the revolution will come with surfing or breakdancing, a discipline that has several representatives in the elite Spaniards, in 2028 it will be the turn of cricket, a discipline in which Spain has a national team that recently went viral after qualifying for the European Championship, squash, which became one of the fashionable sports in Spain at the end of the last century, baseball and softball, or those that are still expanding, lacrosse (similar to field hockey, but with sticks that have a net on the end) and flag football (a type of non-contact American football), a a sport so niche that it does not yet have a clear translation into Spanish. Some talk about ‘flag football’, others about ‘handkerchief football’ or ‘tocho’.
The IOC approved this Monday the inclusion of these five new sports for the event that will take place in Los Angeles, which will have 35 disciplines, a record in Olympic history. Cricket, which will be played in the Twenty20 format (shorter duration) was already Olympic in 1900. Lacrosse was part of the 1904 and 1908 Games, and was later a demonstration sport in 1928, 1932 and 1948. It is a sport that has around six centuries of history but that, in contrast, is not well known among society. In 2028 it will be played in the Sixes format (two teams made up of six players each). The growth in Spain of this sport is exponential. 20 years ago there was only one team, Madrid Lacrosse, while today there are men’s and women’s leagues in both senior and youth categories. In turn, the Spanish Lacrosse Association (AEL) has a women’s and men’s team, both senior and junior.
John Harper, director of operations of the organizing committee, explained that the objective is to innovate and exert the greatest possible impact, show sports rooted in the culture of their country and, conversely, make other internationally relevant sports known in the United States. Baseball, he said, will provide “the best” in Los Angeles with the opportunity to compete in the Games. Regarding lacrosse, he said: “It is history because of its indigenous roots. It was the first team sport on the continent. “It will be a return to the future.” This is a team sport whose objective is to score a goal by carrying a rubber ball in the stick pocket and shooting with it at the goal. There are different modalities, but the Olympic one will only be sixes: six against six in 32-minute matches divided into four times of eight on a field measuring 55 by 30 meters.
Niccolo Campriani, Director of Sports and Italian sports shooter, winner of four Olympic medals, said that American football is the most popular sport in the United States and the ‘flag’ or ‘billet’ version proposed for the Games, without contact, is the most inclusive. “Flag football is the future,” he said. In this modality, Spain was proclaimed runner-up in the Women’s European Championship last August, an event in which it defended a historic continental crown achieved in 2019.
Regarding squash, the athlete emphasized that “his time” had come and underlined its universality by remembering that among the top ten in the world rankings, men or women, four continents are represented. The discipline – which had more than 10,000 members at the end of the 90s – lost its influence among Spanish racket fans in favor of paddle tennis, whose growth has been even more overwhelming. Now, he dreams of a new era of splendor after being in the Olympic program for the 2028 Games. The best Spaniard in the ranking is Iker Pajares (27 years old, number 21) who has ten titles on the circuit. The Catalans Bernat Jaume (28 years old) and Edmon López (27 years old) and the Tenerife-born Iván Pérez (23 years old) are also in the top 100. In girls, Cristina Gómez (25 years old) from Murcia and Marta Domínguez (22 years old) from Vigo lead the girls. years), both among the sixty best in the world. All of them will still be of age to be able to attend the Games.
Campriani alluded, on the other hand, to cricket as the second most popular sport in the world, with 2.5 billion followers. “There is a commitment to grow it in the United States,” he said. In addition, he highlighted the digital pull of the sport and mentioned that the Indian player Virat Kohli, present at the meeting, “is the third athlete with the most followers (on social networks), 314 million, more than LeBron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods combined ».
2023-10-16 16:25:14
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