LA28 Qualification: The Winners And Losers

By now, the global squash community has had some time to fully digest the long-waited Olympic qualification guidelines agreed upon by the IOC and World Squash and released on Sunday.

All clear?

Simplified, there are a number of routes to a place in LA: 

• five places available in each draw to the winners of each Continental Games
• eight available via the world rankings
• one for the USA as the host nation
• one for the winners of the World Qualification Finals
• One other for a 'universality' selection

Plus a whole host of caveats and sub-clauses - meaning there is much to be debated and understood.

Based on our knowledge of the system so far, here's our five winners and losers from the LA 2028 qualification announcement.

WINNERS

Mid-ranking squash nations
Switzerland, Colombia, Qatar, India, Pakistan, Spain, Hong Kong, Canada, Ukraine... Players from these countries may currently reside outside the world top 16, and yet the system very much brings them into contention for spots at the Games.

Not only do these nations firstly have a chance to earn places through winning their respective Continental Games, there are also eight places on offer via the May 2028 world rankings, at least five (most likely six) of which can only go to one nation each.

This means the no.1 players in less prominent squash countries could be in with a chance (provided they're in the world top 50 in May 2028) of earning a ticket to California.

Lower-ranked squash nations
The Final World Qualification tournament will take place some time in the last couple of months before the Games, once the 15 places in each draw earned via the other qualification methods have been confirmed.

This tournament will be an incredible spectacle. With the glistening hills of Los Angeles just weeks away, players from 24 of squash's lesser-known nations in each draw will be scrapping it out for the one last seat at the Olympic table.

In each 24-player draw, no more than one country will be represented. This means the no.1 players from the world's lesser-known nations will get a shot at a level of recognition and glory they never previously thought possible.

Here’s what the draws would look like based on today’s rankings:

USA (particularly the men)
USA get a guaranteed host country quota place in both the men's and women's draw, thus ensuring the home crowd will have at least two players to cheer on from behind the glass court at Universal Studios in Hollywood.

In the women's draw, the current women's rankings show that the USA's 'free pass' wouldn't be needed, with Olivia Weaver riding high at world no.3 and thus likely to qualify via her world ranking even if she doesn't win the Pan American Games (for which, currently, she would be top seed and a strong favourite anyway).

But no USA man has ever been ranked higher than 24th in the world — and even though Timothy Brownell is currently nearing that landmark, he would still (as of February 2026) have to rely on the backstop of a host country quota place in order to take his place at the Games.

Diversity
In the name of diversity, one spot per draw is allocated to what's known as a 'universality place'.

Based on the Paris2024 Olympic criteria, the allocated universality place will go to a player representing a nation that has less than eight total individual athletes competing across the entire Olympic Games.

Applications for the universality place must be received from National Olympic Committees by 15 January 2028 and the decision will be made by the IOC's Tripartite Commission.

The criteria is somewhat opaque, but the two lucky players must be ranked no lower than 75 in the world rankings come May 2028 - should there be no-one capable of fulfilling the criteria, ie not ranked above 75 and from an under-represented nation, the universality place would revert to the next highest ranked player on the PSA rankings from a nation not already represented in the draw.

Presuming that criteria remains the same for LA28, here are some of the squash players we think could be in contention to claim the Universality Berth:

WOMEN
Colette Sultana: Malta
The 30-year-old, currently ranked 127 in the world, has been as high as 91 in the world in the past and would be the top contender based on current world rankings. With two years to improve her ranking, Sultana is in pole position to gain a Universality spot.

Mary Fung-a-Fat - Guyana
Currently 182 in the world, Fung-a-Fat’s career high is 106 and she has experience at major games, representing Guyana at the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Timonaliz Alarcos-Kriebisch: Papua New Guinea
Aged 13, the German-residing PNG junior could be an outside contender. She’s been enjoying success on the European Junior Circuit and hould Alarcos-Kriebisch translate that into success at the senior level in what would likely be her first season on tour, she could be in with a chance of bagging the Universality berth.

MEN
David Maier: Liechtenstein
Currently ranked 162 in the world, David Maier has undergone two heart operations to keep his dream of playing squash alive. Coming from one of the world’s smallest countries, it would be a fairytale story should he make it to LA.

Taylor Carrick - Bermuda
Ranked 180 in the world and aged 24, Carrick played 16 PSA events in 2025 so is an active player looking to climb the rankings.

LOSERS

Egypt
There can be no denying it, squash's global superpower has not come out of this system favourably. With a maximum of two places per nation in each draw, many of Egypt's massed ranks of world-class players will not be going to Los Angeles (unless they can manipulate a last-minute change of nationality!).

There are currently seven Egyptians in the top 16 of the men's rankings and eight in the women's. That situation is unlikely to have changed much in two years' time. It's unavoidable that many of our sport's best athletes will have their dreams shattered.

Nouran Gohar
The 'maximum two players per nation' rule is especially significant for Egypt's so-called Big Three at the top of the women's game; Hania ElHammamy, Nouran Gohar and Nour ElSherbini.

The particular disadvantage for Gohar is that, with her first baby due in April this year and the fall in ranking that it will lead to (shall has fallen from no.1 to no.4 already), her best means of qualifying may be by winning the gold medal at the African Games.

But unfortunately for her, the African Games take place in January 2027 (the second-earliest out of the five continental Games LA28 qualifying events), meaning Gohar's post-partum return to full fitness will have to be spectacularly quick. But if anyone can do it, it's The Terminator!

Players ranked second in their nation in May 2028
If the Olympic qualification system applied today, there would be many disappointed players - but whoever loses out in the women's rankings will have particular reason to feel aggrieved.

To explain: let's safely assume that Egypt will have two players in both draws. That leaves probably only one (maximum two) other nations who can also claim two positions.

In the women's event, that could mean a very tight battle between the second-ranked players of Belgium, Great Britain, USA and possibly Malaysia to be the highest-ranked player on the cut-off date of 22 May 2028 (on current rankings, that would be a straight fight between Nele Gilis, Jasmine Hutton, Amanda Sobhy and Aira Azman).

Further complexity would come if a second (or even lower) ranked player won their Continental Games title. If Amanda Sobhy, for example, were to win the Pan Am Games but be ranked world no.30 on 22 May 2028 (thus lower than Egypt and Belgium/GB's second-ranked player) then Olivia Weaver would not go to LA28 - even if she were world no.1!

Weaver's destiny, in that instance, would lie entirely in her US team-mate's hands. The same could equally apply to the men. An astonishing thought.

The world no.51 (and below) on 22 May 2028
A main tenet of the qualification system is that no player outside the world's top 50 can qualify for the draw (unless it's via the World Qualifying Tournament or in the unlikely event that the eight quota places allocated through the world rankings stretch beyond the world top 50 and there is no third nation with an eligible second-ranked athlete to receive an additional place).

The battle for places in the top 50 on May 2028, amongst players who are no.1 ranked in their nation, will therefore be intense. Players from world no.51 downwards on the cut-off date may end up painfully short of the qualification threshold.