Ahead Of The Games

By Mike Dale

So, less than three years to go... How are the nerves? Squash's big moment is getting closer, preparations are gradually growing in intensity and stakeholders are working to maximise the long-term impact that Olympic status will have on our beloved sport.

The stunning announcement on 9 October 2023 (rubber stamped a week later at the IOC session in Mumbai) that squash was to be one of five new sports added to the sports roster for LA 2028 has already generated change, debate, speculation, intrigue and media profile.

As we get closer to 2028, the sands will continue to shift. Who will be there? How will the line-up be decided? How will our sport present itself to the world? Let's recap what we know so far... and what's still to be revealed.

VENUE

Who could have imagined, when we first watched the Hollywood blockbuster 'Back to the Future' on its cinematic release in 1985, that the site of the lightning strike on the iconic courthouse clock would later serve as the location of squash's debut in the real-life Olympic Games? 'Great Scott!' as crazy-haired Doc famously said.

Universal Studios Lot — where Jurassic Park, The Truman Show, Psycho, Pirates of the Caribbean and others have also been filmed — will host a dramatic and historic sporting narrative in 2028 inside a glass showcourt.

Squash's strong links with Comcast — the parent company of NBC Universal, which owns and operates Universal Studios theme parks — no doubt played a large part in securing such a thrilling, high profile location.

The global media and tech corporation has become a vital backer of U.S. squash in recent years — and the use of its own patch at Universal Studios is set to be its most important philanthropic gift to the sport so far.

Comcast will in fact be one of the first companies ever to have naming rights at an Olympic competition venue. For the duration of the Games, the purpose-built, temporary squash venue will be known as the Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios.

LA28 Chairperson and President, Casey Wasserman, said the Olympics' first ever naming rights programme advanced "LA28’s mission of a fully privately funded and no-new-build Games" and would "generate critical revenue for LA28 [and] introduce a new commercial model to benefit the entire Movement.”

World Squash President Zena Wooldridge thanked the IOC, LA28 and NBCUniversal for their "brilliant creative vision in proposing squash for what will surely be one of the most iconic sporting venues in the world." She added that the location will "present a unique and spectacular Hollywood setting for squash’s Olympic premiere, one which I’m sure will excite squash fans across the world.”

FORMAT

The precise format of the competition is as yet unknown. What we do know is that organisers have a reduced field to work with following the revelation in April that both men's and women's singles draws will feature 16, rather than the originally assumed 32 players. There will be no doubles competition.

The IOC announcement of 16-player draws was a huge surprise and shock to everyone, from the players right up to the global custodians of the game. But concerns over making the Games "cost-effective", which included limiting the number of core athletes to 10,500, meant some events had to be trimmed. Squash, as the new kid on the block, was an easy target.

A 16-player draw would lend itself to a group stage format, but as we've seen at the annual PSA World Tour Finals, that does tend to produce some 'dead rubber' games, which would not please ticket holders or the billions watching on TV and online. A conventional knockout draw could be the preferred option, but we must wait and see.

SCHEDULE

Squash at the LA 2028 Olympics will be a nocturnal affair.

The schedule, released this summer, shows that squash will take place over 10 consecutive nights (15-24 July 2028). Sessions will run between 19.30-23.15 for the first six nights, then start from 20.30 for the last four. 

The men's and women's medal matches will take place on the evenings of 23 and 24 July respectively, with each session lasting an expected three hours.

QUALIFICATION

Of all the things we don't yet know in relation to squash's Olympic debut, this is the one provoking the most intense speculation and scrutiny.

The cut to 16 players will make qualification doubly difficult for the players — and an even more thankless task for organisers. Thirty-two players will be ecstatic, but hundreds more will be left with shattered dreams and are likely to look rather dimly on the system that (in their eyes) brought about their exclusion.

So, here's what we do know: international federations for all sports on the LA 2028 programme, including squash, must submit their qualification systems to the IOC Executive Board for approval by the end of this year. Final ratification will take place at the IOC Session in early 2026.

So, in the next few months, we will find out the framework for LA 2028 qualification.

Will squash set up a qualification system within the PSA World Tour with a number of events in which players earn Olympic qualification points (as in other sports such as badminton)? Will the top tranche of players in the world rankings earn automatic qualification, and others go through continental qualifying competitions? A mixture of the two? Another system entirely? We await the answers.

One other thing to note on this topic: an Olympic qualification place is earned by the athlete on behalf of his or her country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), but that NOC has the freedom to assign it to a player of their choosing. In the vast majority of cases, they quite logically give it to the player who earned it — but they are not obliged to.

For example, Danish badminton player Line Kjærsfeldt met all the selection criteria for Paris 2024 and yet was not selected by the Danish governing body, Badminton Denmark. They preferred Mia Blichfeldt, despite the fact that she had finished one place lower on the ‘Race to Paris’ ranking system.

The Dutch Golf Federation even handed back assigned Olympic places for Paris 2024. Demi Weber, Darius van Driel and Joost Luiten were told they would not be selected for the Netherlands despite fulfilling all the selection criteria. The Dutch NOC said it would only select “realistic options” of finishing in the top eight, and didn't consider that particular trio of sufficient standard.

To take a hypothetical example, Joel Makin could earn a qualifying spot for Team GB at LA 2028, only for the newly-formed Great Britain squash governing body to hand it to Jonah Bryant. Clearly, there would be outrage at such a decision (especially in Wales!) but it is, in theory, possible.

One ripple effect of squash's Olympic inclusion that we've already seen is players extending their careers with the specific purpose of getting to the Games and forever being able to call themselves an Olympian.

Saurav Ghosal, the 13-time Indian national champion, is one such example. This February, he came out of retirement after a year, citing the Games as fresh impetus. He will be nearly 42 when LA 2028 begins.

Former world no.2 Camille Serme also returned to professional squash a year ago, having retired to have her baby Jude in 2021. "In all honesty, without the Olympics I wouldn’t have come back," she said at the time.

Despite winning a 13th French national title and rising over 400 places in the rankings during her second coming, she retired again this August. She didn't specifically say so, but the cut from a 32 to 16 draw must have been a devastating blow.

BROADCASTING AND COMMERCIAL

NBCUniversal (owned by Comcast) has held the U.S. media rights to the summer Olympics since the last Los Angeles Games in 1984 and its current contract (renewed in 2014 at a cost of $7.75 billion) runs until the Brisbane Games in 2036.

LA 2028 will once again be broadcast in America on NBC and its streaming platform Peacock, which has around 41 million subscribers.

In preparation for its Olympic debut on these channels in America, squash will make its first ever appearance on Peacock at the upcoming US Open in Philadelphia, with the semi-finals and finals shown live on 24-25 October to its huge potential audience.

“As squash makes its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028, showcasing major events like this helps build excitement and momentum ahead of the sport’s biggest stage,” said Molly Solomon, Executive Producer, NBC Olympics and Paralympics.

The role of NBC cannot be underestimated. Executives from the corporation visited last year's Tournament of Champions in New York and although they were impressed by the spectacle, they told the PSA that player misbehaviour and stoppages must be cut out.

That feedback led directly to the rule changes for the 2025/26 season and beyond.

Promotion of squash in the States in the run-up to LA received another recent boost with the news that Octagon, a leading sports and entertainment PR agency, has partnered with US Squash to elevate the sport's profile ahead of its Olympic debut.

Octagon will represent US athletes Olivia Weaver, Amanda Sobhy, Sabrina Sobhy and Marina Stefanoni, focusing on increasing media visibility and leveraging and creating commercial partnerships. Without Olympic inclusion, this simply wouldn't be happening.

SWITCHING NATIONALITIES

It is very likely that there will be restrictions on the number of players from one particular nation that are permitted in each draw — and it is obvious that the nation most affected by this will be Egypt.

Egypt have, at the time of writing, seven players in the men's world top 16 and nine in the women's, including all of the top three. Not all of them are going to make it. It could even be as low as one or two in each.

Given that, it is not surprising that there is heavy speculation about several players from Egypt and other strong squash-playing countries looking to switch nationality, attaching new national colours on their metaphorical Trojan horse as it rolls through the Los Angeles city gates.

At the time of writing, none have gone public with confirmed switches of allegiances to new flags, but it won't be long before they are compelled to do so.

A three-year exclusionary period (between their last participation for their previous country and their first appearance for their new one) applies to athletes wanting to change nationality. This rule can be waived by the IOC Executive Board, but only with prior agreement from the International Federation (i.e. World Squash) and the National Olympic Committee involved.

Those looking for clues may find it instructive to look back at the recent appearances of certain squash players in representative international competitions such as the World Team Championships — particularly those who were conspicuously absent. Were they really 'injured', or was their three-year exclusionary period just beginning?

BRISBANE 2032

Whisper it quietly lest it comes true, God forbid, but there is a chance that squash will head to Los Angeles for its long-cherished Olympic debut with a metaphorical black cloud hanging over its head.

A decision will be made on the initial sports programme for the next Olympics, Brisbane 2032, at the IOC Session in 2026. The Brisbane Organising Committee will then have the opportunity to propose the inclusion of other sports to reflect local interest and attract a broader audience.

So, two years before LA 2028 even begins, it's possible that squash will not be chosen to continue its Olympic odyssey in Brisbane. This desperately unhappy scenario befell breakdancing before its debut at Paris 2024. The sport's fate had been sealed before 'Raygun' had even started her memorable display of its merits.

Keen to avert this scenario, squash has already begun the lobbying process all over again. World Squash president Zena Wooldridge, Squash Australia president Matt Schmidt and CEO Rob Donaghue, PSA COO Lee Beachill, and five-time world champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald met with Brisbane 2032 CEO Cindy Hook and Sports Director Brendan Keane in March this year to present our case.

"It was a positive and constructive conversation about how squash’s unique features could add value to the Brisbane Games at a relatively low cost," said Wooldridge. "We also shared how inclusion in the LA28 programme is already accelerating development and innovation in this sport, elevating its visibility and that of its top athletes."

We must all hope that discussions with the Brisbane bigwigs continue to be fruitful.