LA 2028 Olympics: Skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing in; boxing, weightlifting, modern pentathlon out (for now)

Carissa Moore
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Skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing, which made their Olympic debuts in Tokyo, are slated to remain on the program through the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The IOC Executive Board announced Thursday the sports recommended for the initial program for the Los Angeles Games, to be confirmed by IOC members in February, listing 28 international federations.

For now, longtime Olympic sports boxing, weightlifting and modern pentathlon are not on the 2028 program, but there is a pathway for their inclusion. All three are on the 2024 Olympic program.

Boxing and weightlifting have been contested at every Olympics since 1920. Modern pentathlon has been at every Olympics since 1912.

IOC President Thomas Bach said the three sports’ international federations must address separate problem areas to the IOC Executive Board’s satisfaction. If so, they can be added to the 2028 Olympic program as early as 2023.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) must address concerns “around its governance, its financial transparency and sustainability and the integrity of its refereeing and judging processes,” Bach said.

In June 2019, the IOC stripped AIBA of its Olympic recognition following an inquiry committee report into finance, governance, refereeing and judging. An investigation later found that 2016 Olympic medal bouts were fixed by “complicit and compliant” referees and judges.

Bach said the International Weightlifting Federation must transition “towards compliance and effective change of culture.” Specifically, it must address the sport’s historical doping problems and “ensure the integrity, robustness and full independence of its anti-doping program.”

More than 60 weightlifters who competed between the 2008 and 2012 Olympics later failed drug tests or retests of old samples, including more than 30 original medalists.

Modern pentathlon is in a very different situation. Its federation must determine a replacement for horse riding as one of its five disciplines.

“They must demonstrate a significant reduction in cost and complexity and improvements across the areas for safety, accessibility, universality, appeal for youth and general public,” Bach said.

Last month, the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) said horse riding would be removed to boost the chances of keeping modern pentathlon’s place in the Olympics. A UIPM commission recommended that riding be replaced by a to-be-determined discipline that “enhances the popularity and credibility of modern pentathlon, while preserving its status as the ultimate physical and mental sporting challenge.”

Separately, the sport of equestrian’s place in the Olympics is not in danger.

LA 2028 can also propose adding sports solely for its edition of the Games. That’s how skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing made it to the Olympics for the first time in Tokyo, and now all three are slated to be held at three consecutive Olympics.

Baseball and softball, which were added for Tokyo at the organizers’ request after being voted out of the Olympics after 2008, will not be on the 2024 Paris program but are hoping to return for LA 2028.

“As we look at additional sport recommendations, we will continue to focus on sports that are relevant to Los Angeles, provide an incredible fan experience and contribute to the success of the Games,” LA 2028 chair Casey Wasserman said in a press release. “We want to build on tradition, while progressing the Olympic Games forward.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Laurel Hubbard, transgender weightlifter, named to New Zealand Olympic team

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Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand, has been named to the nation’s Olympic team after qualifying via international rankings at the end of May.

No openly transgender athlete has competed at an Olympics, according to Olympic historians. Hubbard, 43, transitioned in her mid-30s and has competed at the top international level since 2017.

“As well as being among the world’s best for her event, Laurel has met the IWF eligibility criteria including those based on IOC Consensus Statement guidelines for transgender athletes,” New Zealand Olympic Committee CEO Kereyn Smith said in a press release. “We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play.”

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) adheres to IOC transgender guidelines introduced in 2015: athletes who transition from male to female are eligible for the Olympics if their total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months. The athlete’s declaration that her gender identity is female also cannot be changed for at least four years.

Hubbard, second and sixth at the world championships in 2017 and 2019, last competed internationally on March 1, 2020, according to the IWF.

Hubbard came back from rupturing an elbow ligament on a snatch attempt in April 2018, an injury she believed would be career-ending, to remain Olympic eligible.

She needed to compete once between Nov. 1, 2018 and April 30, 2019 to stay in the qualifying race. She did so on April 29, 2019, taking three snatch attempts and failing on all of them — “bombing out,” as they say in weightlifting — and receiving zero qualifying points, but retaining Olympic eligibility.

ON HER TURF: The real threat to women’s sports? It’s not trans women

“When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was advised that my sporting career had likely reached its end,” Hubbard said in the Olympic team announcement release. “But your support, your encouragement, and your aroha carried me through the darkness.

“The last eighteen months has shown us all that there is strength in kinship, in community, and in working together towards a common purpose. The mana of the silver fern comes from all of you and I will wear it with pride.”

Hubbard competed against men until 2001, stopping lifting at age 23 due to “the pressure of trying to fit into, perhaps, a world that wasn’t really set up for people like myself,” she said in 2017.

Hubbard last spoke extensively to media after taking silver at the 2017 World Championships behind American Sarah Robles. She has since declined interview requests through New Zealand’s federation.

“To be honest, I had to wait until the world changed before I could really compete again, and I’m grateful that it has,” Hubbard said in 2017, adding that she regained the belief to compete in 2014. “I think even 10 years ago, the world perhaps wasn’t ready for an athlete like myself, and perhaps it’s not ready now. But I got the sense at least that people were willing to consider me for these competitions.”

Hubbard would break the record for oldest female Olympic weightlifter, according to Olympedia.org.

“I’m not here to change the world,” she said in 2017. “I just want to be me and just do what I do.”

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U.S. Olympic weightlifting roster largest in 25 years, possibly best in 60 years

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The U.S. Olympic weightlifting team is its largest in 25 years — the maximum four men and four women — and could win its most medals since the 1960 Rome Games.

All four women rank in the top three in their divisions in global Olympic qualifying, when excluding lifters who won’t be at the Games due to roster size limits or doping sanctions.

Kate Nye (76kg) and Sarah Robles (+87kg) both won world championships in this Olympic cycle, becoming the first Americans to do so since 1994.

Nye won her world title in 2019 at age 20, after spending more than half her life in gymnastics and three years after dropping CrossFit to focus on lifting.

Robles, 32, earned the lone U.S. weightlifting medal in Rio (bronze) among the four lifters.

Mattie Rogers (87kg) took silver behind Nye at 2019 Worlds in the non-Olympic 71kg division. Jourdan Delacruz (49kg) broke American records in winning the Pan American Championships last month.

LIST: All U.S. athletes currently qualified for Tokyo Olympics

C.J. Cummings (73kg), the South Carolinian dubbed “the LeBron James of weightlifting” as a 15-year-old prodigy, will make his Olympic debut at age 21 as the youngest U.S. Olympic weightlifter since 2000.

Cummings is the lone U.S. man ranked in the top five in any division in global Olympic qualifying. He’s second at 73kg, looking to become the first American man to earn an Olympic weightlifting medal since 1984.

The team is rounded out by fellow Olympic rookies Harrison Maurus (81kg), Wes Kitts (109kg) and Caine Wilkes (+109kg).

The U.S. last won more than two weightlifting medals at an Olympics in 1960.

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