Tag: Olympics 2028

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was reintroducing testing for gender, starting from the 2028 Los Angeles Games, to determine eligibility to compete in the female category, preventing transgender women from competing.

The screening will mean Olympic women’s sports at the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be limited to biological females, which would also rule out those with differences in sexual development (DSD) from competing.

The IOC is abandoning rules it brought in in 2021 which allowed individual federations to decide their own policy and implementing a policy across all sports.

“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening,” the IOC said in a statement.

The test will be carried out through a saliva sample, cheek swab or blood sample.

IOC president Kirsty Coventry said: “The policy we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts.

“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat.

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“So it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”

The IOC is bringing in the new policy after the women’s boxing competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics was rocked by a gender row involving Algerian fighter Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan.

Khelif and Lin were excluded from the International Boxing Association’s 2023 world championships after the IBA said they had failed eligibility tests.

However, the IOC allowed them both to compete at the Paris Games, saying they had been victims of “a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA”.

Both boxers went on to win gold medals.

Lin has since been cleared to compete in the female category at events run by World Boxing, the body that will oversee the sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Gender testing was first introduced at the 1968 Olympics and last used at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta but then scrapped after criticism from the scientific community.

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The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is currently in talks with Cricket Scotland to potentially form a unified cricket team named Great Britain for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo.

Cricket is set to make a comeback as one of the five new sports at the upcoming Los Angeles Olympics, as confirmed by organizers in October last year.

This marks a significant return for the Gentlemen’s Game, which was last seen at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris over a century ago.

The number of teams and qualification criteria for the Los Angeles Games are yet to be revealed, however, if qualified, England intends to play as the Great Britain cricket team.

The ECB aims to uphold the practice of athletes hailing from the United Kingdom, which includes Northern Ireland, participating in the Olympic Games as part of the Great Britain team, commonly referred to as Team GB.

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“With the Los Angeles Olympics four years away, it’s very early stages, but we’re talking to Team GB and Cricket Scotland about the next steps we need to take,” an ECB spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo.

“Once again Great Britain’s Olympians have captured the national imagination with their exploits in Paris this year, and we look forward to working together to compete when cricket returns to the Olympic stage in 2028.

“Along with England and Wales hosting Women’s and Men’s [T20] World Cups in 2026 and 2030, it’s another great opportunity to grow the game and inspire more people to develop a love for cricket.”

Andy Anson, the Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association has shared that in many sports England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland play under the Great Britain name and cricket may follow suit in Los Angeles Olympics 2028.

“We’ve got good experience in golf, in rugby and in women’s football, of how the Four Nations [England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland] can come together and nominate one country to be the main governing body and work with the other countries. So I think cricket will be the same,” said Anson.

“The ECB will be at the centre of that. They’ll have to work with Cricket Scotland to make sure that happens properly. We will help them sign agreements to come together and create a single national governing body, as we have done in those other sports.”

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KARACHI: Los Angeles Olympics 2028 is likely to mark the return of Cricket as a six-team T20 competition is under consideration for the biggest sporting event, British daily newspaper The Telegraph reported on Friday.

After a 128-year hiatus from the Olympics, the International Cricket Council (ICC) proposed the move to “globalise” cricket.

Consequently, cricket is one of nine other sports shortlisted for inclusion alongside the 28 sports in the initial sports programme for Los Angeles 2028.

According to the details, a six-team event each is mooted, with both men’s and women’s teams participating.

Reports further suggest that the ICC has proposed a six-team event with squads expected to be 14 per team in a bid to keep the athlete numbers down. Wherein, the men’s and women’s events could be held one after the other, to save costs.

The six teams could potentially be split into two groups with the Top 2 from each can make their way to the semi-finals. The competition may likely feature a third-place playoff to determine the bronze medal.

Furthermore, England is anticipated to represent Great Britain in the mega-event, which means that the England team can be strengthened by players from Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Cricket Ireland and Cricket Scotland have all made clear their support for an Olympic bid.

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