BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Calling all sports fans, the Olympic committee recently announced a number of new sports including baseball and squash will all be added to the 2028 games in Los Angeles.
Vermont doesn’t have major pro sports teams the way neighboring states do. But with new Olympic sports on the horizon, some Vermont teams could find themselves on the world stage.
Although The 2028 Olympic games are years away the dream is alive and well for some Middlebury College athletes and coaches. “We’ve been trying for over 30 years to get in,” Middlebury College Squash Mark Lewis
Mark Lewis is the women’s and men’s coach for the school’s Squash teams ranked 16 and 20 nationally. He says collegiate squash is a gateway for a professional league especially in the Northeast where Ivy League universities and New England colleges produce some of the top-ranked professionals in the country. “To get the kind of support of the USOC and the IOC is a big deal. It means that more people will get a chance to see it, experience it, and maybe play it,” said Lewis.
Now he says a goal of the squash community is to build on this momentum and expand collegiate opportunities with a push for club teams to become varsity, as there are more junior players than there are collegiate spots. “There’s lots of opportunities for, you know, the pros out there who are coaching, teaching, and playing to make a living at it to actually get involved. And in fact, I think the growth is going to be here in the US a lot over the next obviously four years but probably beyond that,” said Lewis.
Joining the now-olympic ranks with squash is baseball which has appeared on and off at the games since 1904 but won’t again until 2028. Like Squash, the Lake Monster’s future league is also collegiate-based. Senior Vice President C.J. Knudson says they provide summer competitions for some of the best student-athletes in the country. “They’re playing at big-time college programs, and they definitely have a shot of potentially playing in the Olympics and also playing major league baseball,” said Knudson.
Vermont might lack a major league baseball team but touts 20 Lake Monster alumni playing in the MLB this past season. It’s momentum that’s already grown in Vermont now with an Olympic goal. “We’ve actually seen an uptick in little league baseball and excitement for that, because some of those boys and girls might play for Lake Monsters and for five years and so gives them a goal to aspire to. And now with the Olympics being back in there, then that’s another benchmark that they can try to reach,” Knudson.
Beyond baseball and squash, softball, cricket, flag football, and lacrosse will also become Olympic sports in 2028.
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