Lacrosse is nowhere near the global participation rates the IOC wants to see (compare their list of affiliated national federations with baseball’s, let alone karate’s), and if the Olympics expand any more, they’ll simply explode into oblivion.
But we can dream, right?
(And maybe one day the IOC will take up the idea of splitting up the Summer Olympics so more sports can get in.)
Yeah, that’s a pipe dream unfortunately. Lacrosse would be about tenth in line for entry into the program, and as you imply, the Games are already too bloated.
Instead of splitting the Games up into parts (a Beach Games here, an Extreme Games there, etc.) what I would like to see is a little more flexibility in the program. I don’t understand why the sports, once they are included, are so hard to dislodge. Just because we have taekwondo and modern pentathlon this year, why do we have to have it next year?
Why not have three or four “open” spots in the program? The local organizing committee (with the IOC’s input of course) could choose what sports go in those spots. Each Games would have a unique program, catered to the host country. That way more sports would get the exposure they desire – and lacrosse players might even be able to realize their Olympic dreams – but you’d keep a firm cap on the size of the event in any given year.