Anna 
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially approved the event program and athlete quotas for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, marking a historic milestone for gender equality. For the first time, every team sport at the Olympics will feature at least the same number of women’s teams as men’s teams. Baseball and softball will each include six national squads.
“This is a very important step on our road to the LA28 Olympics,” said World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) President Riccardo Fraccari. “Baseball and softball are truly global sports known for their gender equality and athlete-focused approach, all core values of the Olympic Movement. We can’t wait for the qualification process to begin.”
The combined total number of athletes for baseball and softball at LA28 will be 234 — 144 in baseball (24 players per team) and 90 in softball (15 players per team). These numbers are consistent with those from the sports’ most recent Olympic appearance at Tokyo 2020.
With the quotas now finalized, the WBSC will move forward with designing the qualification systems for each sport. As the host nation, the United States is guaranteed automatic entry in both baseball and softball. The remaining five team slots per sport will be filled through a qualification process that will be announced soon.
The LA28 Olympic program will feature 36 sports and 351 medal events — 22 more events than in Paris 2024. While the overall athlete quota remains at 10,500, the LA28 Games will include an additional 698 quota spots allocated to five new sports proposed by the LA28 Organising Committee: baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash.
All four of the proposed team sports — baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, and lacrosse — will feature six teams per gender, continuing the focus on equal representation.
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