Women’s Soccer To Have More Teams Than Men’s At LA 2028

The women’s soccer tournament will be bigger than the men’s edition for the first time at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee announced.

The number of women’s soccer teams at the next Olympics will increase from 12 to 16, while the strength of men’s soccer teams will reduce from 16 to 12.

With full senior teams, the women’s Olympic soccer event offers a star-studded and premier global competition when compared to the men’s event, which is restricted to under-23 players with an allowance for only three over-age professional players.

Women’s soccer debuted at the Olympics at the 1996 Atlanta Games with eight teams, half as many as the men’s tournament. The count increased to 10 at the 2004 Athens Olympics before expanding to 12 at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

According to Reuters news agency, the IOC said the increase in women’s soccer teams was linked to the rapidly growing popularity of women’s team sports, especially in the United States, and that change in the competition format reflected that rapid growth.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the United States women’s soccer team won a record-extending fifth gold medal and their first since the 2012 London Games. The USWNT won the gold by beating Brazil 1-0 in the final, thanks to a goal from Mallory Swanson.

“We wanted to do something to reflect that growth and equally with the United States being the home of the highest level of popularity of women’s football,” IOC sports director Kit McConnell told a press conference.

McConnell said that the IOC had discussed the issue with both LA Games organizers and world soccer’s governing body FIFA before going through with the changes.

Los Angeles Olympics Program Changes

The changes to the Olympic soccer event were part of a number of changes to the Olympic event program, as for the first time in history, all team sports will have at least the same number of women’s teams as men’s teams.

“Gender equality was a key consideration when deciding on the athlete quota and the number of events,” the IOC said in a statement.

“In the initial sports program, with 10,500 athletes, the number of female athletes is 5,333 and the number of male athletes 5,167. The additional sports add 322 female athletes and 376 male athletes. In addition, six mixed events were added to the event program. Out of 351 events, there are 161 women’s events, 165 men’s events and 25 mixed events.”

In boxing, an additional women’s weight category ensures full gender parity across events, while two additional women’s teams in water polo will ensure full gender parity in the athlete quota and number of teams.

Additionally, archery, athletics (4x100m mixed relay), golf, gymnastics, rowing coastal beach sprint and table tennis will all see the inclusion of a new mixed team event.

With the inclusion of boxing, approved by the IOC Session in March 2025, the LA28 Olympics program is composed of 31 sports, with an additional five sports proposed by the Organizing Committee and approved by the IOC in 2023.