The next Summer Olympic Games will take place in 2024, but officials are already planning for the 2028 Summer Games. The International Olympic Committee has decided to add five new sports to the 2028 Games. They are baseball/softball, cricket, squash, lacrosse, and flag football. All five are team sports.

The Olympics take place in a different city each time. The 2028 Summer Olympics are set to occur in the American city of Los Angeles, California, so it’s fitting that three of the new sports were invented in North America. Here’s a bit more about how each of the sports is played.

Baseball/Softball

In professional sports, baseball is usually played by men while softball is usually played by women. The two sports have similar rules. A hitter hits a ball with a bat and then tries to run around three bases and back to home plate to score before someone from the other team has a chance to tag the player with the ball. If a player from the other team catches the ball before it hits the ground, or if the hitter is tagged while running around the bases, they are out and don’t score.

Cricket

As in baseball, cricket players try to hit a ball with a bat, but there are many differences between baseball and cricket. In cricket, the game area is a rectangle called a pitch. A batter stands on each end of the pitch in front of small wood structures called wickets. Someone from the other team, called a bowler, throws the ball to one batter. If the bowler knocks down a small stick that rests on top of the wicket, the batter is out. If the batter hits the ball, the two batters run to switch places (and their team scores). They keep batting until the other team’s players recover the ball.

Squash

In squash, two players stand on one side of a four-walled indoor court and use rackets to hit a ball against the wall in front of them. Each player tries to keep the other one from getting control of the ball when it bounces back.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a bit like field hockey. Players use sticks to try to get a ball into the other team’s net, which is guarded by a goalkeeper. But unlike a hockey stick, a lacrosse stick has a basket on the end. A player can scoop up the ball into this basket and use their stick to throw the ball toward the net.

Flag Football

In football, players try to get the ball toward the goal while the other team tries to stop them. In professional American football, players try to stop their opponents by tackling them, or knocking them down. In flag football, players have flags hanging off the waistbands of their uniforms. One player can stop another player from running with the ball by getting that player’s flag.