Female athletes to be in the majority at LA28

GENEVA — Female athletes will be in the majority at an Olympics for the first time at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games thanks to a big win for women's soccer.

The International Olympic Committee decided Wednesday that the women's soccer tournament in 2028 will be bigger than the men's edition for the first time, with 16 women's teams and just 12 for men — flipping the gender imbalance at the Paris Olympics, which had 16 men's teams and 12 in the women's tournament.

The decision by the IOC executive board helped push the core quota of athletes for LA to 5,333 women and 5,167 men — a 50.7 to 49.3 percent split — the IOC said.

The gap is closed slightly when athletes for the sports being added specially for the LA program — involving 322 female and 376 male competitors — are included. Those sports include cricket, flag football and lacrosse.

The landmark progress for women athletes was made at an online board meeting Wednesday, co-chaired in Lausanne for the first time by Kirsty Coventry as president-elect since her win last month. In June she will formally replace her mentor Thomas Bach to become the IOC's first female leader in its 131-year history.

Two more women's teams were added in water polo, so that the tournament in Los Angeles will be equal to the men, with 12 nations each. Boxing will have one extra women's weight class to equal the men's lineup of seven medal events.

"The message of gender equality is a really important one for us," IOC sports director Kit McConnell said. "We really thank LA28 for supporting this. It's central to their vision as well."

The case for change

The IOC's headline decision was redressing an inequality since women's soccer debuted at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with just eight teams — half as many as the men's tournament.

The board confirmed a proposal revealed last Thursday by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, when he spoke at the annual meeting of European soccer body UEFA.

The case for change was made more compelling because the women's soccer tournament is a top-tier title, with national teams sending their best players.

The men's tournament, however, only rarely attracts the best players because of selection conflicts with clubs worldwide, and is mostly for players aged 23 or under. The French men's team, which took silver in Paris last year, was unable to select Kylian Mbappe who had just signed for Real Madrid.

There were 16 men's soccer teams at every Summer Games since Moscow in 1980 through Paris last year.

The women's lineup increased to 10 teams at the 2004 Athens Olympics, then to 12 four years later in Beijing.

FIFA and Infantino had repeatedly called for equality, with a 16-team women's tournament, which would have added about 70 extra players, plus team officials, to push the limits on athlete accommodation quotas for Olympics organizers.

The solution found was to favor the women's edition over the men's, and further drive the IOC's policy of gender parity at the Olympics that was first reached in Paris.

Golf and the 4x100 sprint relay are among events that will have mixed gender team events for the first time in Los Angeles.

Other new team events will be introduced in artistic gymnastics, archery, coastal rowing and table tennis.

Medal events in 2028 will comprise 161 for women, 165 for men and 25 mixed events, the IOC said, setting a new Olympic record of 351 medal events.

Agencies Via Xinhua