Longest time between Summer Olympic appearances (sport)

The longest time between Summer Olympic appearances for a sport is 128 years. Cricket was last played at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, France, and will return at the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad (aka LA28) in Los Angeles, USA, between 14-30 July 2028. The sport's comeback was confirmed on 16 October 2023.

T20 cricket is one of five new sports that will be introduced at LA28. The others are baseball/softball, flag football, squash and lacrosse.

Cricket was due to be played at the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece, in 1896 but the tournament was cancelled due to a lack of entrants. In 1900, Belgium and Holland withdrew before the start of the Games, leaving just ‘Great Britain’ (advertised as ‘England’) and ‘France’ to take part in the only match of the tournament – a 12-a-side, two-day affair that was touted as being part of the 1900 Paris Exposition World’s Fair rather than an Olympic contest.

Several other sports have endured lengthy absences from the Olympics programme: golf had a 112-year break between 1904 and 2016, tennis was excluded for 64 years until 1988, and archery was left out for 52 years between 1920-72.