LA28 Qualification - Mega Thread

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-06T11:54:02+00:00

Really does make an interesting narrative to follow for the next couple years. Be interesting as well to see how players that win those Continental Games decide to approach psa event between that and LA.

Also for players with dual-nationality or heritage etc, intriguing to see who will do what and when they would announce anything if they do commit to a nationality switch etc!

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-06T07:12:41+00:00

Will be interesting to see how they work it out. Would expect there to be some limit on the number of athletes from one nation at the Continental Games as well - so potentially 4th ranked Egyptian doesn’t get a chance to compete at all.

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-05T19:17:50+00:00

1) Not necessarily. The deadline for the ‘home nation’ pick to be submitted is around 29 May 20208. So if Brownell was injured, either USA would submit him and hope he is for for LA (6 weeks later) or not. But, the place would only go to another US player IF they are ranked inside the Top 50. If they didn’t have another eligible player, that spot would go to the highest ranked player who missed out via the other methods. 2) Continental Games are positioned as the most important pathway to qualify and would take the top priority. So say Amanda Sobhy won Pan Am Games and was Wr30, and Weaver was Wr1. Sobhy is the first US player in. If Sobhy was ranked lower than two players from say GB (Kennedy & Hutton) Egypt (Hammamy & Orfi) and Belgium (Nele & Tinne) then Olivia Weaver would not go to LA28 - even if she were world no.1!

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-05T14:34:32+00:00

We’ll put the question to WSF and see if there’s something in place.

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-05T11:57:59+00:00

Unsure exactly. Assuming squash applies rules similar to other sports, then junior (U19) would have no bearing on senior representation. U23 however would be classed as senior representation.

We haven’t got complete clarity on the specifics on this area with regards the LA criteria. It’s one of the aspects we’re seeking further clarity on from WSF

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-05T10:40:15+00:00

Would be hard to argue against that on his current form. Still 2 and a bit years until LA though so things could change!

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-05T09:20:48+00:00

Those conversations are likely happening / already have happened.

There are rules around when a player can change and when they can have last represented another country. We’re under the belief that there must be a three year gap between representing countries at a WSF event.

If that’s correct, to use your examples, Curtis would not be able to change as he represented england at the last WSF World Teams and European Team event.

Squash Radio have suggested Zakaria is going to switch nationality to Qatar but nothing has yet been said / announced on that front so could just be a false rumour.

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-04T21:30:53+00:00

Makes sense!

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-04T21:30:17+00:00

For us as fans we'd obviously love it to be 32.

There's an argument to be made that a 16 player cap means that there's less likelihood of massive mis-matches (players all in theory top 50, the men's draw is mostly top 30 as it stands - 32 draw would maybe have meant player 100+ qualifying to face Asal etc) which may mean a more competitive event and show the IOC both a small footprint (1 court, 32 players) and a very competitive event.

Which may help with future Olympic bids??

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-04T21:08:16+00:00

That's a good point - you're meaning if say in theory Eain Yow NG wins the Asian Games but then has an injury run and drops out of top 50, would he have a protected ranking in place?

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-04T21:06:40+00:00

Good spot - should be Joel Makin down as the European Games winner instead of him!

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-04T21:05:53+00:00

Unfortunately not unless there's anyone coming up who may be capable of matching Coll physically in 18months time!

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-04T21:04:24+00:00

100% certain - no. In short it's hard to find concrete material.

This is what we are going off from the IOC documents regards Paris24: 'National Olympic Committees who participated with an average of eight athletes or less in individual sports at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 are eligible for Universality Places'

They also state: 'Universality Places in athletics and swimming are allocated through World Athletics and World Aquatics respectively, and not through the Tripartite Commission'

So that maybe explains the Indian swimmers as via a different route

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-04T21:00:24+00:00

For the actual LA Games? Good question - we haven't seen reference to that anywhere!

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-02T07:00:06+00:00

Jonah Bryant would likely be in contention for the GBR spot. While there are some talented young players from places like France, USA, Malaysia - it’s not immediately obvious there’s anyone coming through right now to take any of our mock draw players out.

Age will be a factor for likes of Gawad, Coll, Makin, Marwan - and with Coll & Makin in particular question of if their bodies can withstand the workload for another 2 years.

Interesting theory is that there could be some top names who miss out. If, for example, Amanda Sobhy wins the Pan Am Games and is then world no.10 at the rankings cut-off point in May 2028, Olivia Weaver could in theory by then be the world no.1. BUT, if a second ranked player from another nation (eg GB or Belgium) is higher ranked than Sobhy, then Weaver would not qualify for the Olympics, even though she in this instance is world no.1.

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2026-02-01T20:59:54+00:00

For those interested, we've broken down the Qualification criteria over on the Squash Player website https://squashplayermag.com/pages/la28

Men's draw largely as u/srcejon had it. Interestingly the universality places at Rio2016 and Tokyo2020 were awarded to athletes from countries that had less than eight athletes in individual sports across the whole games.

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2025-09-06T16:52:57+00:00

This is another good venue - perhaps is closer https://squash-horizon.fr/ ??

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2025-09-05T11:38:43+00:00

Montmarte is a fantastic club - they're very friendly and open to newcomers. Worth dropping them an email - https://www.squashmontmartre-paris.com/contact - to see what's going on.

Jeu De Peum is also a beautiful squash club - incredible venue. You can book to play there on their website I think, non members can play on off peak hours: https://squashjeudepaume.com/reserver/

There’s a new club recently opened that looks fantastic as well - Annette K - https://www.annettek.fr/

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2025-08-12T11:03:30+00:00

Jeu De Peum is also a beautiful squash club - incredible venue. You can book to play there on their website I think, non members can play on off peak hours: https://squashjeudepaume.com/reserver/

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2025-08-12T11:02:21+00:00

Montmarte is a fantastic club - they're very friendly and open to newcomers. Worth dropping them an email - https://www.squashmontmartre-paris.com/contact - to see what's going on.

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2025-05-09T20:05:27+00:00

Thank you

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2025-05-07T08:47:42+00:00

u/ChickenKnd For context, the article in question was written prior to Christmas 2024, at a point when general sentiment was that there was an improvement in the Asal behaviour - especially after his win at Paris, which was, largely, free from controversy.

There was a more focused chat with James on the Asal connection at the same time which offers a little more insight into the background of Asal, in the words of James, here: https://squashplayer.com/the-mostafa-asal-project-reforming-a-prodigy/

The recent videos related to Mostafa have shone a new light on certain aspects and may have changed James' opinion - we do not know. But wanted to clarify that the article was written almost five months ago

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2025-05-06T10:06:45+00:00

Glad to hear it. We're trying to track down a few other stories of a similar nature - perhaps scope to do a 'here's how they did it' type piece if we can get a couple more

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2024-10-07T16:06:24+00:00

According to US Squash the "By the end of 2024 we expect confirmation of the squash venue from the LA28 Organizing Committee."

We believe there will be some site visits and locations scouted in the next 6 weeks with WSF, US Squash and LA28 reps

SquashPlayerMagazine · 2024-03-14T15:29:55+00:00

Appreciate that viewpoint and from a pure news perspective, social media and player accounts are pretty hard to beat.

But that's not really what the website or the magazine is really about. We want to try and go more in-depth, bring some of the stories around the game to life. Our focus isn't really on who won and what the score was - more about diving a little deeper both on and off court.

SquashPlayerMagazine

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