Baseball and softball are back in the Olympics in 2020, but not beyond that, though Paris 2024 organizers can propose to add the sports for their Games.
Will they?
“I can’t tell you now, and it’s a good question,” Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet said Wednesday. “We will meet and work with the different federations interested in [joining the 2024 Olympic program].”
That likely means many meetings.
Tokyo 2020, the first Olympic host allowed to propose adding sports for its edition of the Games, said 26 international federations responded to its invitation to be considered for inclusion.
Tokyo 2020 trimmed it to eight finalists, then proposed five sports (karate, sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing and baseball/softball as one sport) to the IOC in September 2015. The IOC approved all of them 11 months later.
Baseball and softball return to the Olympics in 2020 for the first time since 2008. But the IOC has not added the sports back into the Olympic program full-time.
The World Baseball Softball Confederation repeated its desire to stay on the Olympic program for 2024 on the same day that the IOC announced Paris would get the 2024 Games and LA the 2028 Games on Sept. 13.
Los Angeles bid officials, who put Dodger Stadium on a 2015 list of potential Olympic venues (but none since), have not announced whether they would propose baseball and softball for 2028.
The Olympic Charter says the Olympic program must be finalized three years before the Games.
“We have now a lot of offers, and many sports want to be a part of the Games,” Estanguet said Wednesday. “I can’t tell you, honestly, because we haven’t decided yet. We have more than two years to propose something to the IOC. We have time.”
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