Of those:
I have no justification for Lacrosse or Flag Football.
If Cricket isn't popular enough to justify being in the Olympic then we have to cut most sports from the Olympics.
The main justifications I can see for Baseball not being deserving of an Olympic spot is that the women's game is extremely underdeveloped (to the point that Softball is substituted as a women's version) and that the top pros have never taken part in the Olympics. But Baseball is one of the most developed and competitive team sport in the world on the men's side. It definitively dwarfs exisitng Olympic team sports like Water Polo, Handball and Field Hockey.
The main reason I think breaking being in the Olympics would make sense as a permanent inclusion is that it's dirt cheap to host - very few athletes, relatively few officials, very easy to produce for TV and re-using an exisitng venue. It really doesn't need to have very much appeal to be worth it.
I actually think is going to be favourites to win both the men's and women's events
The format at the Olympics is sixes, which isn't the same as the traditional outdoor lacrosse format. It has a lot of elements that make it more similar to box lacrosse (an indoor version of lacrosse played on a pitch the size of an ice hockey rink), and that's a version of the game Canada absolutely dominated.
...but ya, and are almost locks for the gold medal game in both the men's and women's event. If the Haudenosaunee are allowed to compete then there is a real chance there could be a North American sweep in the men's event.
Where I personally draw the line would be including sports that *can* be played on ice or snow, as long as they actually are played on ice or snow at the Winter Olympics.
So I would be in favour of cross country running or cyclocross as long as a large part of the playing field for both is covered in snow and part of the challenge includes navigating winter conditions. Also why I'm in favour of snow volleyball being considered.
(I'm also a big fan of including ice climbing in the winter Olympics, but I think that's a less controversial idea with regard to it being a "real" winter sport)
Love to see him lose his Australian passport. I hate this stuff. He should surrender his Australian citizenship if he was an honest man.
Looks like he had been planning this for a while but as too gutless to say so before the Olympics as he may have been deselected
Part honey trap. part money. GB track cycling has a big budget, Australia not so much
That's kind of how I feel about Lacrosse's inclusion in 2028. Obviously I'm happy it will very, very likely give two medals (and decent chance to win gold in both events), and I also happen to really enjoy watching Lacrosse so I'm happy to have it in the Olympics either way.
But can I justify Lacrosse being an Olympic sport, compared to so many other sports? Nope.
(And to be clear, I believe Water Polo definitively deserves to be in the Olympics more than Lacrosse does)
You can really expand the number of cricket nations by including all the territories which can contribute to the West Indies team _which is about a dozen but there are four main ones (actually Barbados has historically been the number one contributor) The total population of these West Indies states is about 6 million.
As for lacrosse I'm betting now that the gold medal game will be USA beating Canada, but I bet I won't find any takers it's such a sure thing. GB and Australia play lacrosse in a very small way so there's your bronze medal game. As for the rest of the world well I think they may have a national lacrosse team but don't really have much in the way of local leagues. But then that could also be said of China and (field) hockey so who knows what could happen. Look at USA and Canada in rugby7s where both are rugby minnows - once a sport is in the Olympics things can change.
Flag football will hopefully also be a oncer with USA the certain winners.
Maybe not so much here but I'd say plenty of people are becoming very cynical about the Olympics
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