Six new sports are being added to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and some fans reckon they've figured out why some of them will be being played.
The Paris Olympics came to an end at the weekend with an eye-catching closing ceremony officially handing things over to Los Angeles for the same again in four years' time.
Viewers were given a treat of the LA culture we can expect in 2028, with Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre taking to the stage in a moment some described as the 'greatest' closing ceremony moment ever.
For 2028, two sports have already been cast aside. The first is breaking, or breakdancing, which only made its debut in Paris.
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The second is boxing, which has been in the Olympics for more than a century. A deadline of 2025 has been set for the sport to resolve governance and integrity issues, otherwise it is gone for Los Angeles.
At the same time, six sports are being added in time for the LA Games and half of the list has got people's eyebrows raised, with people all posting along the same lines on social media.
It all comes down to the kind of sports being enrolled in the Olympics and more specifically, who excels at them the most.
Four of them - flag football, baseball, lacrosse, and softball - have got people thinking this is a legitimised way to make sure that Team USA comes top of the medal count in the country's home Olympics. Especially so given that if it isn't the USA, the likelihood is it would be China - something you'd imagine the States would want to avoid for all manner of political issues.
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At the Paris Olympics, the USA and China both won 40 gold medals each. The USA topped the table due to the sheer number of silver and bonze medals to add to the tally, with 126 medals in total compared to China's 91.
One American wrote on X (Twitter): "If we don't get gold in flag football, softball, baseball and lacrosse, USA ain't allowed to hold the Olympics here no more."
A second American added: "Might as well hand us the gold for lacrosse right now."
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And another user posted: "The f**k are baseball and flag football looking for [crying laughter emoji]. More ways to hand Americans medals I see."
"Free gold medals for the US," a fourth added.
Back in 2022, the LA Organising Committee for the Games shortlisted nine new sports for the 2028 Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirming the above four sports as part of the schedule.
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This was alongside cricket and squash; two sports that make the above conspiracy theory a little half baked. That's because squash is dominated by Egyptian and Team GB players.
From a cricket point of the view, the same can be said with Team USA having little to no chance of winning anything, with the top three teams in both the men's and women's games India, Australia, and England - albeit in different orders.
And even with baseball, Japan ended up winning gold when it was last played at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, beating the USA in the gold medal match.
The USA is ranked number one in both the men's and women's lacrosse world ranking, and third in softball.
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It should come as no surprise that when it comes to flag football - a low-contact version of American football - the USA ranks number one. This is followed by Mexico, Japan, and Team GB.
Tom Earnshaw