Fans 'shocked and appalled' as historic sport is dropped from 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles
Sports fans have been left 'shocked and appalled' after realising that one of their favourite competitions wont be taking place at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
As we say goodbye to the Paris Olympics - and what an Olympics it has been - all eyes are now on the City of Angels as LA is officially handed the baton when it comes to a repeat of the sporting festival in four years time.
But as things get serious and the four year countdown begins, some sports fans have been left a little baffled as to why one of the most historic sports in the Olympics will not be a thing come 2028.
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In total, two sports from the Paris Games are being scrapped with six new sports being added to the calendar. All in all, it'll mean the total number of sports being played in LA will be 36; up from 32 in Paris.
One sport that we're saying au revior to after Paris is breaking, which is known by many as breakdancing. Despite its roots being firmly in the USA, it wont come back for 2028.
Among the six sports that will make their debut is flag football, a variant of American football where athletes have flags attached to a belt. Opponents must remove the flag instead of tackling them to the ground.
There is also squash which will make its debut after years of campaigning, as well as baseball and softball.
The other two sports coming to the 2028 Games are lacrosse and cricket. Alongside breaking, another sport looks doomed for the 2028 Games due to issues away from the game itself. And that is boxing.
Boxing has featured in almost every summer Olympics after being introduced in 1904, and has been a mainstay ever since apart from in 1912 due to Swedish laws at the time banning the sport.
But for 2028, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said boxing has no chance of making an appearance unless it cleans up its act.
It comes after the IOC stripped the International Boxing Association (IBA) of running the competition at the 2024 Games over issues regarding funding and governance, with reforms not taken up by the association which is heavily backed by Russia.
The two came to blows during the Paris Games over the gender eligibility of two female boxers competing in the women's competition.
A final decision will be taken in 2025, which means boxing is in a race against time if it wants to be involved.
In May this year, the IOC took issue with the IBA's decision to award winners of medals at the Paris Games with prize money.
"As always with the IBA, it is unclear where the money is coming from. This total lack of financial transparency was exactly one of the reasons why the IOC withdrew its recognition of the IBA," the IOC said.
"The IBA was not prepared to transparently explain the sources of its financing or to explain its full financial dependency, at the time, on a single state-owned company, Gazprom."
For boxing to make a comeback, the IOC has demanded a 'credible, well-governed International Federation'.
The IOC said: "It is therefore already clear that any boxer whose National Federation adheres to the IBA will not be able to participate in the Olympic Games LA28. The respective National Olympic Committees will have to exclude such a National Boxing Federation from its membership."
Taking to social media, fans were fuming at the idea of an Olympics without boxing. One said: "How is boxing potentially not going to be in the next Olympics in LA, it would be a travesty to lose what I believe is one of the cornerstone sports of the Games."
Another said: "Although I have been critical of some of the judges in the Olympics boxing, I am shocked and appalled that the IOC are dropping boxing from the LA Games. A huge error of judgement."
Emmet Brennan, an Irish boxer who has competed in the Olympics, wrote: "With the quality and atmosphere on display in boxing at this Olympics you’d think the IOC would be mad to get rid of the sport for LA. Once things are cleaned up I’d be confident they will go ahead with it."
World Boxing looks like the biggest hope when it comes to saving boxing's chances for 2028, with president Boris Van Der Vorst spending the Paris Games roping in more national federations in hopes of unifying the sport.
"There's only one reason to join [World Boxing], and that's to save our sport," Van Der Vorst told the Associated Press.
The most bizarre, discontinued Olympic sports
Painting
Back in the day, the Olympics dished out medals for art too, with events including painting and sculpture, as well as music, architecture and even literature.
Making its debut all the way back at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and continuing until the 1948 London games, juries awarded competitors a total of 151 medals for artistic projects inspired by sport.
Tug of War
Bet you didn't think this playground classic was once part of the Olympics, did you?
Well, it turns out not only was the sport popular, but it stirred up a lot of drama too - with accusations of foul play flying around at the 1908 Olympics in London, with Team USA accusing Team GB of cheating due to their 'illegal' heavy footwear.
A mainstay for around five Olympic games from 1900 to 1920, Tug of War enthusiasts have even campaigned for organisers to reintroduce the retired sport back into the Games.
Hot Air Balloon Racing
Launching at the 1900 Olympics, hot air balloon drivers would compete in races scoring how far they could travel, altitude reached, ability to land within the correct coordinates and - to top it all off - who got the best photo from the balloon.
The sport ended up being canned after a ban on motorised sports was brought in.
Live Pigeon Shooting
Also making its debut at the 1900 Olympics, the event was pretty self explanatory - a load of pigeons were released into the air as the competitor tried to shoot as many as possible. Grim.
The event only appeared at the Games once, and all in all, it's estimated that Olympic hopefuls killed around 300 pigeons.
Pistol Duelling
It doesn't take much guessing as to why this event was scrapped, but back in 1906, people clearly didn't bat an eyelid at competitors waving pistols around and shooting at each other.
It began with competitors shooting at dummies, but two years later organisers decided to shake things up and have them shoot at each other with wax bullets. Ouch.
1908 would be the last time the sport was included in the Olympics, so I'm guessing they quickly realised it was a bad idea - wax bullets or not.
Tom Earnshaw