It took four attempts. Four times squash stood at the door of the Olympic Games and was turned away. In 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015 — each bid ended in rejection, often by the narrowest of margins.
Then, in October 2023, the International Olympic Committee finally said yes.
Squash will make its Olympic debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Games. Sixteen men and sixteen women will compete in singles events staged on a glass court at Universal Studios — one of the most iconic venues in entertainment history. And with the Olympic Qualification System officially confirmed in February 2026, the race to LA is already underway.
For fans who have followed this sport for years, it is a moment of long-overdue recognition. For everyone else, it is an invitation to discover one of the most athletically demanding sports in the world — before the mainstream catches up.
Why It Took So Long — And Why It Matters Now
Squash has been a global sport for over a century. It has produced extraordinary athletes, passionate fans across dozens of countries, and some of the most technically complex competition you will ever watch. By almost every objective measure — global participation, athlete quality, spectator appeal — squash deserved Olympic inclusion long before 2028.
The barriers were logistical and political rather than sporting. Squash courts require specific infrastructure that not every Olympic host city could easily accommodate. The sport lacked the broadcast visibility of established Olympic disciplines. And in a crowded field of sports bidding for limited program slots, squash kept narrowly missing out.
What changed the outcome for LA 2028 was a combination of factors: a purpose-built glass court at Universal Studios that solves the venue problem elegantly, a well-coordinated joint bid from World Squash, US Squash, and the PSA Tour, and a generation of athletes whose global profiles made it impossible to keep the sport out any longer.
World Squash CEO Zena Wooldridge described it as a moment the sport had always been capable of reaching. The feeling across the squash world was unanimous: this was not just a milestone for the sport — it was the beginning of something much larger.
The Athletes You Need to Know Before LA 2028
The story of squash heading to the Olympics is inseparable from the generation of players who will be competing for those first-ever Olympic medals. Here are the names driving the sport right now.
Mostafa Asal — The Raging Bull
The current PSA World No.1 from Egypt is arguably the most dominant men’s squash player in the world heading into the Olympic cycle. Asal claimed the PSA World Championship title in May 2025, beating four-time world champion Ali Farag in just 41 minutes. He then added the Tournament of Champions crown in New York in January 2026, extending a streak in which he has not dropped a single game on court since October 2025.
At 23, Asal will be in his prime when LA 2028 arrives. Fast, powerful, and technically complete, he is the kind of athlete whose performances translate immediately to new audiences. Watching him dismantle opponents in real time is one of the most compelling things in professional sport.
Nour El Sherbini — The Record Holder
Eight World Championship titles. That is the number that defines Nour El Sherbini’s career — a tally she shares with the legendary Malaysian player Nicol David, making her co-holder of the all-time record for women’s world titles. El Sherbini won her eighth title in Chicago in May 2025, appearing in her tenth consecutive World Championship final in the process.
She began playing squash at age 6. She became the youngest world junior champion in history at 13. Now at 30, she remains one of the most technically refined players in the sport, and her journey toward an Olympic medal in 2028 will be one of the great sporting storylines of the next three years.
Hania El Hammamy — The New World No.1
El Hammamy became the PSA Women’s World No.1 for the 2025–2026 season and backed it up with a stunning comeback victory at the Tournament of Champions in New York — trailing 9-3 in the fifth game before reeling off eight consecutive points to win the title. At 25, she has time on her side and the competitive mentality of a champion.
Olivia Weaver — America’s Best Chance
The top-ranked American player and currently World No.5, Weaver has been performing at the highest level of the tour for several seasons. As a home-nation athlete at LA 2028, she will carry enormous weight of expectation — and the depth of talent she has shown on the PSA Tour suggests she is capable of handling it. Her near-victory over El Hammamy in the 2026 Tournament of Champions final showed just how close she is to the very top of the sport.
What Makes Squash Worth Watching
If you have never watched professional squash, the first thing that strikes you is the speed. Players cover the court in fractions of a second, reading angles off four walls, anticipating shots before their opponents have even hit them. A rally at the elite level involves physics, psychology, endurance, and explosive athleticism in a combination that most sports cannot match.
The glass court format — pioneered at events held in front of the pyramids in Egypt, at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and in New York’s Grand Central Terminal — transforms squash into genuine spectacle. You can see everything: every shot, every drop of sweat, every expression of concentration and exhaustion. There is nowhere to hide and nothing to miss.
Egypt has dominated the PSA rankings for years, with multiple men and women in the global top ten. But the sport is genuinely global — Paul Coll from New Zealand, Diego Elias from Peru, Joelle King from New Zealand, and players from Malaysia, England, France, and beyond ensure that squash is not a regional story. It is a worldwide one.
The 2028 Qualification Race — It Has Already Begun
With the Olympic Qualification System confirmed in February 2026, the path to LA is now clear. Qualification will come through five Continental Games — the Asian Games in Nagoya, the African Games in Cairo, the European Games in Istanbul, the Pan-American Games in Lima, and the Pacific Games in Tahiti — as well as PSA World Rankings, a host country quota for the USA, and a final qualification tournament in June 2028.
Every major PSA Tour event between now and the 2028 Games will influence world rankings that determine Olympic spots. The next three years of professional squash carry Olympic implications on every single point.
For fans watching closely, this creates a layer of meaning on top of an already compelling professional circuit. Every match is now part of a larger story — the story of who will stand on the Olympic podium at LA 2028 and claim squash’s first-ever Olympic medals.
How to Engage with Squash — Starting Now
The best time to become a squash fan is right now, before the Olympic moment amplifies everything about the sport. Here is how to get started:
Watch the PSA Tour: SquashTV provides live and on-demand coverage of the full professional circuit. Start with the major Platinum events — the British Open, the Tournament of Champions, the PSA World Championships — where the best players in the world compete for the biggest titles.
Follow the athletes: Mostafa Asal, Nour El Sherbini, Hania El Hammamy, and Olivia Weaver all have significant social media followings where they share training footage, competition highlights, and behind-the-scenes content. This is the fastest way to develop genuine connection with the sport.
Collect and manage squash athletes on Peaxel: Peaxel (game.peaxel.me) is a free fantasy sports platform built around real individual athletes in action and niche sports — including squash. You can collect limited athlete gamecards, analyze performance stats, and compete as an athlete manager in weekly Gameweeks where real-world results determine your score.
Peaxel exists precisely for moments like this — when a sport is on the verge of its biggest-ever breakthrough and the athletes driving that moment are still undervalued in the broader cultural conversation. The squash players who will compete at LA 2028 are available on Peaxel now, before the Olympic spotlight makes everyone a fan.
The Moment Squash Has Been Building Toward
Squash has always been extraordinary. The sport did not need Olympic validation to prove that — it just needed the right moment for the world to finally pay attention.
That moment is now. The qualification cycle is live. The athletes are competing. The glass court at Universal Studios is waiting. And in 2028, millions of people who have never watched a squash match will see Mostafa Asal and Nour El Sherbini and Olivia Weaver and Hania El Hammamy compete for gold — and wonder how they missed this sport for so long.
The fans who start paying attention now will not have to wonder. They will already know.
