By Retta Race on SwimSwam
Swimmers around the world are responding to World Aquatics’ announcement that 50m sprints of each stroke will be part of the 2028 Olympic Games official program.
This announcement has been building up for some time, with the world aquatics governing body having submitted a request last August for 50s of backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly to be added to the Olympic schedule. The events were already at every World Championships but had never been part of the Olympic program until now.
British multi-Olympic champion Adam Peaty, who is bypassing this year’s World Championships, was one of the first elite athletes to respond to the announcement.
Via Instagram, the world record holder stated, “50m Sprint Events have just been added to @la28games which confirms my attempt to be at my Fourth Olympic Games.
“This is the best result for our incredible sport and will allow more people to be part of it and stay in it much longer. Thank you @world_aquatics for this amazing decision.
I’ve got a good feeling about these next three years 
”
Reigning 50m fly world record holder Andrii Govorov also expressed his excitement, emotionally stating, “All my life I was hunting that World Record, I was craving for that speed and I got it.
“But I never had a chance to compete my masterpiece at Olympics, always tried to grind that 50 free, today everything’s changed: @olympics added 50m strokes at their @la28games program.
Dreams coming true.”
Although the 50m freestyle event has been on the Olympic program since 1988, Brazilian bronze medalist from the 2020 Games, Bruno Fratus, told me, “Finally!”
We’ll be capturing more elite athletes’ responses to the 50’s addition as we are made aware.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Olympic Athletes React To 50 Sprints Added To Los Angeles Program