British swimmer Adam Peaty commits to 2028 Olympics, sprinters celebrate new events

LONDON – British breaststroke titan Adam Peaty confirmed he will bid for more Olympic gold in the Los Angeles pool following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to add six 50-metre sprint events to the 2028 Games programme.

The three-gold Olympic champion and world-record holder missed out on a third successive 100m breaststroke gold by 0.02 of a second at the 2024 Paris Games, losing to Italian Nicolo Martinenghi after testing positive for Covid-19.

But as world-record holder in the 50m breaststroke, the 30-year-old is ready to go again.

“50m sprint events have just been added to @la28games which confirms my attempt to be at my fourth Olympic Games. This is the best result for our incredible sport and will allow more people to be part of it and stay in it much longer. I’ve got a good feeling about these next three years,” he said on social media.

Peaty will be 33 when LA hosts the Games, but the training load for the 50m will be relatively light compared to the existing 100m and 200m events.

Apart from breaststroke, there will be 50m events in the men’s and women’s butterfly and backstroke at LA, lifting total medal events to 41 from 35 in Paris. The 50m freestyle was added to the programme at Seoul 1988.

LA’s expanded programme will be game-changing for a slew of older swimmers who might otherwise have signed off from the Olympics after Paris.

Swede Sarah Sjostrom, who swept the 50m and 100m freestyle golds in Paris, is the 50m butterfly world-record holder and has never been beaten in the event at world championships dating back to 2015.

Sjostrom, who is pregnant with her first child, is targeting a comeback to the pool to compete at LA 2028. “All 50s are finally being added to the Olympic programme! Best news ever for the swimming world,” the 31-year-old posted on social media.

Overall, there will be 55 medals awarded in aquatics – which also includes artistic swimming, water polo, diving and open water – more than any other sport.

“Today’s decision is a testament to the continued evolution of swimming at the Olympic Games,” said World Aquatics president Husain Al Musallam after the move was ratified by the IOC.

“Including these six new events enhances the programme’s balance and adds more opportunities for athletes to showcase their skills on the world’s biggest stage.”

Swimming is one of only four sports contested at every Olympics since the first Games in 1896, alongside athletics, artistic gymnastics and fencing. The United States and Australia have long been dominant in the pool, with the two nations again at the forefront in Paris.

The IOC also announced that the number of female athletes competing in Los Angeles (5,333) will exceed men (5,167) for the first time.

It follows the women’s football tournament being boosted to 16 teams, while the men’s competition has been downsized from 16 to 12. An additional women’s weight category in boxing and two extra women’s water polo teams ensure gender parity in those sports.

A number of new mixed-team events were also confirmed, including in golf, gymnastics and table tennis, while a 4x100m mixed relay was added to the track and field competition. The total number of athletes remains unchanged at 10,500.

The LA Games will have a total of 351 medal events in all sports, 22 more than in Paris.

The five sports proposed by the LA Games organising committee – baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash – will have an extra 698 quota places.
REUTERS, AFP