IOC puts more medals on the table

With an unprecedented six-gold sweep in table tennis now possible, and more medal events added, China's sports community has embraced both the opportunities and challenges brought by the new sports program at LA28.

The 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles remain more than three years away, yet the release of the Games' sports program and athlete quotas on Wednesday already has the sports world stoked, with 22 additional medal events in LA, compared to Paris 2024, whetting the appetite of major contenders and ambitious challengers from across the world.

To the excitement of table tennis followers, particularly its large fan base in China, the inclusion of a mixed team event, which will add a sixth gold medal to the sport's program in LA, has presented an intriguing prospect for the mighty Chinese squad to go one better than what was already an insurmountable feat — sweeping all five golds in men's and women's singles, teams and the mixed doubles in Paris.

Yet, the replacement of the two team events, where China's collective depth is unmatched worldwide, with the return of men's and women's doubles in LA will spur on the rest of the world to challenge China's tight grasp on gold.

According to the decision made by the International Olympic Committee's executive board, the LA28 program will feature 351 medal events, across 31 sports, and will involve about 10,500 athletes, with an extra 698 quota places allocated for five new sports — baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash.

With the total athlete quotas in table tennis still capped at 172, as same as in Paris, each National Olympic Committee will still have a maximum three paddlers in each gender qualified for LA28, meaning even the strongest contenders, like Team China, can only enter one pair in each of the doubles competitions, with its core players very likely to feature in singles and the mixed team events as well.

The heavier workload, higher stakes and zero margin for error in the doubles are expected to make the LA28 tournament fiercer, more open and more unpredictable than ever.

"After the resounding success of table tennis at Paris 2024, the introduction of the mixed team event in Los Angeles marks another historic milestone, fully aligned with our vision of a dynamic, inclusive future for our sport," said Petra Sorling, president of the International Table Tennis Federation.

Sorling also expressed gratitude to the sport's Chinese promoters for helping trial the mixed team format at the international level before it earned the nod from IOC.

The inaugural ITTF Mixed Team World Cup was successfully held in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, in December 2023, proving the format's appeal to fans and broadcasters.

"I would like to extend my sincere thanks to ITTF deputy president Liu Guoliang (also president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association) for his strong support in delivering a phenomenal event that demonstrated the remarkable potential of this format," said Sorling.

The doubles disciplines had been competed at the Olympics since the sport's debut in 1988 until they were replaced by the team events at Beijing 2008.

Although Chinese pairs had collected nine out of a total 10 doubles gold medals up for grabs at the Games from 1988-2004, the progress of international challengers, such as Japan, South Korea, India and France, has significantly whittled away at China's dominance in the doubles.

At the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, both of China's women's doubles pairs were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Japanese and Indian teams, respectively, while China's men also saw two doubles pairs suffer early exits at the 2021 world championships in Texas.

"The new Olympic program demands more from a team's strategy on player selection, and asks more from players in terms of commitment and physical endurance," said Li Wujun, a table tennis commentator with China Central Television.

"It will be a new challenge for all the aspirant medal contenders around the world, not just China."

Among other program adjustments at LA28, Chinese athletes are also expected to go for podium finishes in the added +80kg women's boxing division, a new mixed team event in artistic gymnastics and additional 50m sprint events in swimming (backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke).

The event program for LA28 was developed based on requests submitted by each sport's International Federation to the IOC. The decision from the IOC's executive board followed the recommendation from the Olympic Programme Commission and the principles approved in 2023, which specified that the Games should be gender equal, globally appealing, cost and complexity conscious, and athlete focused.