UKPSC Prelims 2024 Q118: Which of the following new games have been approved by the

Q: What is the answer to UKPSC Prelims 2024 Q118?

A. Correct — A, T20 Cricket, Baseball, Flag Football, Squash. The 141st Session of the International Olympic Committee, meeting in Mumbai in October 2023, accepted the LA28 organisers' proposal and added five sports to the programme of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028. Option (a) names four of those five — **T20 Cricket, Baseball, Flag Football, Squash**. Lacrosse, in its sixes format, is the fifth, and it is not printed in any of the four options here. So the test is not whether an option lists the whole package. It is whether every sport in the option belongs to it, and option (a) is the only set that passes. Carry away the package rather than a single name: **the LA28 additions were voted in together at the Mumbai Session in October 2023, with cricket returning in the T20 format**.

UKPSC Prelims 2024 General Studies Paper-I · Question 118 of 147

Verified against the official question booklet. Answer as per UKPSC's provisional answer key.

Answers from UKPSC's provisional answer key. The Commission publishes a provisional key for UKPSC Prelims 2024 and invites objections before issuing a final key. Every answer shown here is the Commission's own provisional answer (key PDF), not our derivation. If the final key changes an answer, this page is updated to match.

Which of the following new games have been approved by the International Olympic Committee for the Los Angeles Olympic Games 2028?

(a)T20 Cricket, Baseball, Flag Football, Squash
(b)T20 Cricket, Fencing, Baseball, Rugby
(c)T20 Cricket, Squash, Fencing, Polo
(d)T20 Cricket, Fencing, Kabaddi, Skating

Answer

Why

Correct — A, T20 Cricket, Baseball, Flag Football, Squash.

The 141st Session of the International Olympic Committee, meeting in Mumbai in October 2023, accepted the LA28 organisers' proposal and added five sports to the programme of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028.

Option (a) names four of those five — T20 Cricket, Baseball, Flag Football, Squash. Lacrosse, in its sixes format, is the fifth, and it is not printed in any of the four options here.

So the test is not whether an option lists the whole package. It is whether every sport in the option belongs to it, and option (a) is the only set that passes.

Carry away the package rather than a single name: the LA28 additions were voted in together at the Mumbai Session in October 2023, with cricket returning in the T20 format.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
T20 Cricket, Fencing, Baseball, Rugby — Cricket and baseball do belong to the LA28 additions, but the option then adds two sports that were already on the Olympic programme, and one wrong name breaks the whole set.
Fencing has been contested at the modern Olympic Games since Athens 1896, so it cannot be new for 2028. Rugby is present as rugby sevens, introduced at Rio 2016.
Fencing and rugby are the names that answer a different question — which of these sports was already on the Olympic programme before the LA28 additions were voted in.
(c)
T20 Cricket, Squash, Fencing, Polo — Cricket and squash are both in the LA28 package, so this option gets halfway, then adds two sports the Mumbai Session did not put on the 2028 programme.
Fencing has been on the Olympic programme since 1896. Polo belongs to Olympic history rather than to the 2028 Games: it was contested at several early editions, and its last Olympic appearance was at Berlin in 1936.
Polo is the name that answers a different question — which of these sports last appeared on the Olympic programme at the Berlin Games of 1936.
(d)
T20 Cricket, Fencing, Kabaddi, Skating — Cricket is the only LA28 addition in this list. Fencing has been an Olympic sport since 1896, and neither kabaddi nor skating was among the sports approved at Mumbai for Los Angeles.
Skating is also ambiguous as written: figure skating and speed skating sit on the Winter Games programme, while skateboarding, the skating discipline on the summer programme, made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
Kabaddi belongs to a different programme: it became an Asian Games medal sport at the 1990 Beijing edition.

Concept

The Olympic programme has two layers. A core of sports is settled by the IOC for each edition, and on top of that the organising committee of the host city may propose extra sports for its own Games alone.

Such a proposal goes first to the IOC Executive Board and then to a full Session of the IOC, which votes on it.

A sport admitted by this route is admitted for that edition; to appear at the following Games it must be proposed again, unless the IOC promotes it to the core programme, as it did for skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing.

This is why sports drop in and out of the Summer Games. Tokyo 2020 brought in its own additional sports, Paris 2024 kept some of them, dropped others and added breaking, and Los Angeles used the same route for its five.

For an Indian candidate the LA28 decision carries extra weight on two counts: it takes cricket back to the Olympic Games after the Paris Games of 1900, and the Session that voted it through was held in Mumbai.

Key facts

The 141st IOC Session, held in Mumbai from 15 to 17 October 2023, approved five additional sports for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028.
The five are baseball/softball, cricket in the T20 format, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash.
Flag football and squash will be making their Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028.
Baseball/softball, cricket and lacrosse are returns to the Games; cricket was played at the Paris Games of 1900.
Fencing has been on the programme of the modern Olympic Games since Athens 1896.
Rugby is on the Olympic programme in the sevens format, introduced at Rio 2016.
Polo's last appearance at the Olympic Games was at Berlin in 1936.
Kabaddi has been a medal sport at the Asian Games since the 1990 Beijing edition.
Skateboarding made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
The International Olympic Committee has its headquarters at Lausanne, Switzerland.

New for LA28, or already there?

Cricket (T20)→Added for LA28 — a return after Paris 1900

Baseball / Softball→Added for LA28 — a return to the Games

Flag football→Added for LA28 — Olympic debut

Squash→Added for LA28 — Olympic debut

Lacrosse (sixes)→Added for LA28 — the fifth, not printed in the options

Fencing→On the programme since Athens 1896

Rugby→Present as sevens since Rio 2016

Polo→Last Olympic appearance, Berlin 1936

Kabaddi→Asian Games medal sport since 1990

Skateboarding→Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020

The four highlighted rows are exactly the sports printed in option (a). Lacrosse completes the five approved at Mumbai in October 2023; the rows below it are the sports the other options borrow, either from the existing Olympic programme or from outside it.

Study next

Additional sports proposed by Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, and which of them carried over to the next editionHow the host organising committee, the IOC Executive Board and the IOC Session divide the decision on the programmeCricket at the Paris Games of 1900 and the T20 format planned for Los Angeles 2028Kabaddi at the Asian Games, and sports that sit on the Asian Games programme but not the Olympic oneRecent IOC Sessions and the cities that hosted them, including Mumbai in 2023

Common traps

Reading 'new games' as 'games that feel Olympic'. Fencing appears in three of the four options, and it has been on the programme since 1896 — which is exactly what disqualifies it.
Assuming the correct option must list all five additions. Option (a) names four of the five, and it still wins because every name in it belongs to the package.
Treating rugby as absent because the fifteen-a-side game left the programme in the 1920s. Rugby is on the programme as sevens, so it is not an LA28 addition.
Letting a sport's standing in India stand in for Olympic status. Kabaddi's international platform is the Asian Games, not any IOC decision on the 2028 programme.
Mixing the two Olympic seasons. Figure skating and speed skating belong to the Winter Games, and skateboarding was already on the summer programme before 2028.

An item like this bundles several sports into each option, so recognising one correct name settles nothing — the option stands or falls on all four names together.

The efficient move is to test the names one at a time and drop an option at the first sport that was already on the Olympic programme. Related stems ask instead for the host city of an edition, the body that took the decision, or which sport is making its debut.

Related PYQs

MPPSC_2019_PRE_PaperI_Q392019

Same edition of the Games, opposite half of the fact. That item asks which city hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics, so the host city is the answer; here the host city is given in the stem and the programme added for that edition is what has to be recalled.

MPPSC_2020_PRE_PaperI_Q122020

Same institution, different kind of fact. That item asks where the IOC is headquartered, which is Lausanne; here the IOC appears as the body whose Session, meeting in Mumbai, voted the five sports in. One tests the address, the other a decision.

ESE_GS_2021_Q382021

Same reasoning shape, different list. That item tests membership of an approved set of games — the indigenous games added to the Khelo India Youth Games 2021 — and asks which name does not belong. Here the list is the Olympic additions for LA28 rather than a domestic games programme, and the option is a bundle of four names instead of one.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following sports included in the programme of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 will be making its Olympic debut at those Games?
- (a)Baseball
- (b)Cricket
- (c)Squash
- (d)Lacrosse
Answerc — Squash enters the Olympic programme for the first time at Los Angeles 2028; the IOC described it, along with flag football, as making its Olympic debut there.
The other three are returns rather than debuts. Baseball has been contested at earlier Games, most recently at Tokyo 2020, cricket was played at the Paris Games of 1900, and lacrosse was named by the IOC among the sports coming back to the Games.
practice — not a real PYQ
The decision to add five sports to the programme of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 was taken at a Session of the International Olympic Committee held in which city?
- (a)Lausanne
- (b)Mumbai
- (c)Paris
- (d)Los Angeles
Answerb — The 141st IOC Session met in Mumbai in October 2023 and approved the LA28 organisers' proposal for five additional sports.
Lausanne is where the IOC has its headquarters, which answers a different question. Paris hosted the 2024 Games and Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Games, but hosting an edition of the Olympics is not the same as hosting the Session that took this vote.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following was not among the additional sports approved for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028?
- (a)Flag football
- (b)Lacrosse
- (c)Squash
- (d)Kabaddi
Answerd — Kabaddi was not part of the package approved for Los Angeles 2028. Its international platform is the Asian Games, where it has been a medal sport since the 1990 Beijing edition.
Flag football and squash were both approved and will debut at these Games, and lacrosse was approved in its sixes format as one of the five additions.
practice — not a real PYQ
Before its inclusion in the programme of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028, cricket had been played at the Olympic Games held at:
- (a)Athens, 1896
- (b)Paris, 1900
- (c)St. Louis, 1904
- (d)London, 1908
Answerb — Cricket was played at the Paris Games of 1900, which is why the IOC describes the LA28 inclusion as a return for the sport rather than a debut.
Athens 1896, St. Louis 1904 and London 1908 each carried their own programmes, and the match at the 1900 Games is the Olympic cricket event the record shows.