For the first time in history, there will be more women than men among the participants of the Olympics

The Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee has officially approved the medal program of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. For the first time in history, women’s sports will be represented more widely than men’s. About this reported on the official website of the IOC.

A total of 351 sets of medals will be drawn during the 2028 Olympics. Although the majority of awards will go to men (165 kits versus 161 for women), the total number of female athletes will outnumber male athletes, 5,333 versus 5,167 respectively.

The IOC pays special attention to equal representation in team sports. In all disciplines, women will have at least the same number of teams as men. In particular, in the football tournament, the women’s national teams will be represented by the national teams, while the men’s teams will be represented by the U23 national teams. For the first time in history, there will be more women’s teams.

In the boxing tournament, which has retained its place in the Olympic program, men and women will compete in the same number of weight categories – seven each. Instead of the previous single category up to 75 kg for women, there will now be two: up to 70 kg and over 80 kg.

The same number of teams – 12 each – will represent both men and women in water polo. Six sports, including table tennis, archery and athletics (4x100m relay), will see new mixed events. Compared to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Los Angeles will have 22 more sets of medals up for grabs.

New disciplines include:

• Swimming: distances of 50 m backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke for both sexes (previously these swims were held only in freestyle);
• Academic rowing: men’s and women’s lightweight single sculls and mixed sculls;
• Climbing: separate competitions in bouldering and ice disciplines for men and women, which were previously held together.

The program of the 2028 Games will include 36 sports. Five of them were proposed by the Los Angeles 2028 organizing committee and approved by the IOC: baseball and softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash. In particular, squash and flag football will debut at the Olympics.