The Sydney Morning Herald's Tom Desent, citing anonymous sources, reports that World Aquatics has formally requested that the 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 50m breaststroke be added to the calendar for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
These events take place at the (usually) biennial World Aquatics Championships, a multi-discipline swimming event, except for the 50m freestyle, which is the only 50m event that takes place in the Olympics.
Adding more events to swimming, which already has 37 medal events, including the men's 800m freestyle and women's 1500m freestyle added in Tokyo, will complicate things further. In addition to criticism of “medal inflation,” the 2024 Olympics were already struggling with low numbers of athletes in certain sports due to the IOC's newly introduced lower cap on the number of athletes allowed to compete in the Games.
Adding these 50-stroke events will likely require creativity from World Aquatics to somehow justify them as events that are different enough from existing races that they are worth expanding, without drastically increasing the number of athletes invited.
It could also pose registration cap issues for countries such as the United States, which is already approaching the limit of 26 players per gender.
Adding an extra event could also risk further extending the Games, which have already been postponed to nine days. Aside from concerns about swimming's viewership and presentation, that would be problematic in Los Angeles, where swimming takes place in the second week of the Olympics. Swimming, traditionally a first-week event, was moved in LA (replacing athletics) so that it could take place at SoFi Stadium, which also hosts the Olympic opening ceremony. Extending the Games further would reduce the time it would take organizers to switch the pool from opening ceremony mode to swimming mode.
But more events doesn't necessarily mean longer competitions: 42 medals will be up for grabs over just eight days of competition at the World Championships.
Renowned swimmer Ian Thorpe, who has barely swum the 50 metres, is in favour of the addition.
“The 50s are important. It's almost a unique event in itself and we should recognise that. It's exciting and I actually think it's the perfect balance between a programme of short and middle distance races,” Thorpe told SMH.
“I hope all swimmers will support it. Every swimming fan should support it. Swimming is such an important part of the Olympics that I don't understand why there is any debate about adding six swimming events to the program.”
