The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board delivered two pieces of good news to World Rowing and Olympic hopefuls for the LA2028 Games this week:

Rowing's quota of 502 total athletes will remain unchanged for the LA Games, and the new Beach Sprints discipline's place in the 2028 program has been confirmed, with three medal events: a Men's 1x, Women's 1x, and a Mixed 2x.

The IOC decision on Rowing followed the recommendation of the Olympic Program Commission (OPC) and World Rowing's proposals. "We are pleased with the outcome of the IOC Executive Board’s decision, which confirms the growing presence of Rowing among the core sports at the Games," said Jean-Christophe Rolland, President of World Rowing, in a release.

The now confirmed rowing program for the 2028 Olympic Games gives rowing an additional medal final compared to Paris: with the three Beach Sprints events added to the 12 remaining "classic" rowing events, the sport will have a total of 15 medal opportunities, up from 14 in 2024.

The IOC did, however, pass on including the new Mixed Eight event that World Rowing will add to the World Championships starting this year. The World Rowing press release said "it was decided as 'too soon' to include the Mixed Eight at LA28," but confirmed the event will debut at the 2025 Shanghai World Championships. World Rowing's release says the Mixed Eight has been "met with strong interest by the IOC" which raises the possibility the event could be included in the 2032 Brisbane Games after a successful run at World Championships in the coming years.

"We are also encouraged by the IOC’s engagement with our vision for the future of the sport," Rolland continued in his statement, "including innovations such as the Mixed Eight and new disciplines such as Coastal Beach Sprints. In a quite competitive context, this gives us strong momentum as we look ahead and continue to evolve our sport in line with the Olympic values."

The news about the athlete quota remaining the same will come as a relief to World Rowing. The quota for Rowing has been reduced over the years, most recently after the Tokyo Games, when it went from 526 athletes to the current 502. The decision to keep it at 502 means the Olympic flat water regatta can remain at 12 openweight events split evenly between men and women.

That number in Paris allowed for 32 singles, 13 pairs, 13 doubles, 9 fours, 9 quads, and 7 eights for men and for women, along with the 16 lightweight doubles for each which were dropped from the program after the 2024 Games as part of the IOC's shift towards considering weight categories inappropriate outside of combat sports.

In practical terms, the reduced quota of 502 for 2024 meant the Paris Olympic Regatta was smaller than Tokyo's by one less entry in the men's and women's fours and quads, and two less in the men's and women's light doubles. It is arguable that change impacted the US team in the Men's Quad. The United States Men's Quad finished just one place out of qualification for the reduced field of nine at the 2024 Games, and might have made the Games if the quota still allowed for ten quads. The Men's Quad and Light Men's Double were the only boats the USA did not qualify for Paris.

One major change to the athlete quota for LA28 is that, with the addition of Beach Sprints, the quota will be split across two rowing disciplines for the first time: 438 places will go to the 12 "classic" or flat water Olympic events that remain after the elimination of the two lightweight doubles events and the 64 places that had filled those lightweight events will now serve the Beach Sprints events.

Those 64 Beach Sprints places will be split evenly across two singles events, 32 men and 32 women, according to the proposal presented at the World Rowing Quadrennial Congress last month. The third Beach Sprints event, the Mixed Double, would be made up of athletes already qualified in the singles.

The full World Rowing release on the IOC Executive Board decision is available here, and the IOC's announcement on the LA 2028 event program is available here.