There is a lot to criticize about the Olympics, but generally speaking, it's hard to argue with the Games's taste in new sports in recent years. Rugby sevens, added in 2016, has been a hit. Golf's stock has only risen. Skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing—all have added to the Olympics' cornucopia of offerings.
In 2028, five new sports will join the fold: baseball and softball (which aren't new but aren't being contested in Paris), cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash. Those additions are part of a drive by the International Olympic Committee to add sports to the Olympics that will appeal to the locale in which the Games are held.
This begs the question: which sports could be next?
Using the IOC's line of thinking, here are 10 potential candidates—five for the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane, one apiece for each of the four cities who have confirmed their intent to bid for the 2036 Games, and one wild-card choice. In order to make this alphabetical list, each sport had to answer three questions in the affirmative.
Does the sport have good global governance? This is two criteria in one, asking whether the sport has a functioning federation (a la FIFA or FIBA) and whether that federation has experience shepherding the sport through large-scale events.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? Obviously.
Does it bring something new to the table? If FIFA wants to stage an Olympic beach soccer tournament someday, that's its (very fun) prerogative. We're focused on sports that do something completely different, with one exception that will be explained in short order.
Without further ado, here are 10 potential Olympic sports of tomorrow.
Bowling
Potential Year of Introduction: Brisbane 2032
Potential Medal Contenders: Australia, Denmark, United States
Does the sport have good global governance? The International Bowling Federation ably organizes bowling events at the World Games (an Olympic-like event for non-Olympic sports), and the sport was demonstrated at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? Australia owns 30 medals in the 10-pin world championships, and ranks in the top 10 in that category for both men and women.
Does it bring something new to the table? Absolutely. Bowling has some sway historically as an American TV commodity, and parents around the world tasked with organizing their children's birthday parties could stand to be humbled.
Chess
Potential Year of Introduction: Ahmedabad, India 2036
Potential Medal Contenders: Armenia, India, Uzbekistan
Does the sport have good global governance? Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) has overseen 100 years of chess chaos, from Bobby Fisher vs. Boris Spassky to the 2023 cheating scandal that captivated the world.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? The game itself may date back to the days of the Indus Valley civilization, so it's safe to say the answer is yes.
Does it bring something new to the table? Figuratively, yes, being the Olympics' only board game. Physically, yes as well. The question is whether the Olympics bring anything new to chess's table, considering FIDE stages a biennial tournament called—wait for it—the Chess Olympiad.
Cue Sports
Potential Year of Introduction: Any
Potential Medal Contenders: Chinese Taipei, Germany, Great Britain
Does the sport have good global governance? Given the sheer volume of games under the World Confederation of Billiards Sports's umbrella, the activity's organization has to be commended.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? It's reductive to say cue sports tend to have pull wherever bars exist, but an impressive 20 different countries have medaled in them at the World Games.
Does it bring something new to the table? Yes, and it's the rare sport with one event that could make compelling television in the United States (pool) and one event that could make compelling television in the Commonwealth (snooker).
Dragon Boat
Potential Year of Introduction: Nusantara, Indonesia 2036
Potential Medal Contenders: China, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia
Does the sport have good global governance? The International Dragon Boat Federation actually doesn't have quite the recognition other federations on this list do, but it stages regular world championships and oversees the sport at the Asian Games.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? If you haven't looked at a map recently, Indonesia has a lot of water to go around.
Does it bring something new to the table? Objectively speaking, there are a lot of maritime activities at the Olympics—canoeing, kayaking, rowing, sailing. That could be an asset, though: what's one more, especially one with such an illustrious history?
Flying Disc
Potential Year of Introduction: Brisbane 2032
Potential Medal Contenders: Australia, Canada, United States
Does the sport have good global governance? In addition to overseeing Ultimate (and briefly disc golf) at the World Games, the World Flying Disc Federation very nearly got its sport in the '28 Games.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? The Australians own three World Games silver medals and a bronze medal in it.
Does it bring something new to the table? Yes, in both its unique mechanics and its ethic of gender equity.
Muay Thai
Potential Year of Introduction: Istanbul 2036
Potential Medal Contenders: Thailand, Ukraine, United States
Does the sport have good global governance? Refer to the International Federation of Muaythai Associations, which has had full IOC recognition since 2019.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? The European Games haven't been around for very long, but Turkey cleaned up there with six medals in 2023.
Does it bring something new to the table? You could plausibly make the case that the Olympics already have enough martial arts, but Muay Thai's marriage of martial arts and boxing sensibilities make it a breath of fresh air.
Netball
Potential Year of Introduction: Brisbane 2032
Potential Medal Contenders: Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand
Does the sport have good global governance? World Netball, rebranded in 2021, supervises the durable, basketball-like Commonwealth pastime.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? There have been seven netball tournaments at the Commonwealth Games and the Australians have won four of them.
Does it bring something new to the table? Unquestionably, but it remains to be seen whether its exclusivity to women helps or harms netball's case; additionally, as evidenced by its World Cup participants, the game has very little pull outside the English-speaking world.
Roller Sports
Potential Year of Introduction: Santiago, Chile 2036
Potential Medal Contenders: Colombia, Italy, United States
Does the sport have good global governance? Roller sports cover a lot of disciplines, but they all have going for them the fact that their governing body—World Skate—already oversees skateboarding at the Olympics.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? Chile owns 24 Pan American Games medals in roller speed skating, two in artistic roller skating, and one in roller hockey.
Does it bring something new to the table? Asking roller sports—which generally fare better as participant sports than spectator sports—to draw like figure and speed skating in the Winter Olympics is a lot, but they could probably work well as one-off curiosities.
Rugby League Nines
Potential Year of Introduction: Brisbane 2032
Potential Medal Contenders: Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand
Does the sport have good global governance? The International Rugby League, while an effective World Cup holder, is relatively low on the sports-federation totem pole because rugby league is a fairly niche sport—more on that in a second.
Is the sport popular in the hypothetical host country? Rugby league, as opposed to rugby union—the more popular and subtly different code of rugby currently played at the Olympics—is not practiced in a ton of places. Queensland is one of them.
Does it bring something new to the table? The answer is no, strictly speaking, as the Olympics already has an abbreviated code of rugby union in rugby sevens. However, rugby league nines is Brisbane-specific enough that the IRL is already gunning for inclusion.
Wakeboarding and Water Skiing
Potential Year of Introduction: Brisbane 2032
Potential Medal Contenders: Canada, Ukraine, United States
Does the sport have good global governance? The International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation has its sports pretty much everywhere but the Olympics—the Pan Am Games, the World Games, various regional games, you name it.
It she sport popular in the hypothetical host country? There is a universality to wakeboarding and water skiing: like surfing, they tend to have a following wherever there is water. Oh, and the Australians clean up at the World Games on a regular basis.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The 10 Sports That Should Be Considered for Inclusion in Future Olympics.
