Nigeria’s senior women’s national team, the Super Falcons, will begin their campaign for a place at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games from the second round of the African qualifiers after being granted a bye in the opening stage.

The draw, conducted on Wednesday in Cairo by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), placed Nigeria among 29 higher-ranked teams exempted from the first round of the series.

The Super Falcons will take on the winner of the first-round clash between South Sudan and Comoros in their opening fixture of the qualifiers.

A total of 35 nations are competing for just two available slots allocated to Africa for the women’s football tournament at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, underlining the intensity and high stakes of the qualification process.

The qualifiers will be contested over five knockout rounds on a home-and-away basis, leaving little room for error as teams battle for continental representation on the global stage.

The first round involves the six lowest-ranked teams—Sudan, Mauritius, Djibouti, South Sudan, Madagascar and Comoros—based on the latest FIFA Women’s World Rankings. Winners from this stage will advance to face each other again before the 29 seeded teams, including Nigeria, enter the fray.

Nigeria will be aiming to consolidate their status among Africa’s elite women’s football nations, having qualified for the most recent Olympic tournament alongside Zambia at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Although the Super Falcons boast a notable Olympic pedigree, having made their debut at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and subsequently appearing at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and Paris 2024, qualification has not always been easy.

The 16-year gap between their last two participations in Beijing 2008 and Paris 2024 illustrates the tough time they have endured in the qualifying series.

With the women’s football event at Los Angeles 2028 set to feature 16 teams—including hosts the United States—Nigeria’s path to qualification is expected to be demanding.

Attention will now shift to the preliminary encounter between South Sudan and Comoros, as Nigeria’s technical crew intensify preparations ahead of their second-round entry point.

For the Super Falcons, the mission is clear: successfully navigate a rigorous qualifying campaign and secure a return to the Olympic stage in 2028.

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The draw ceremony, scheduled for April 29 at CAF headquarters in Egypt, will set in motion Africa’s qualifying campaign for the women’s football tournament of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

A total of 35 countries, including Nigeria, will participate in the race for just two tickets allocated to Africa for the Olympic football event, which will take place from July 11 to 29, 2028.

Alongside Nigeria, other contenders include continental heavyweights such as South Africa, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco and Zambia, as well as a wide range of emerging nations from across the continent.

The full list of participating teams also features Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

According to CAF, the qualification series will be played over five rounds, gradually narrowing the field to the two teams that will fly Africa’s flag at the Olympics in the United States.

For Nigeria, Africa’s most successful women’s national team, the qualifiers present another opportunity to reaffirm their continental dominance and secure a return to the Olympic stage after recent mixed fortunes in global competitions.

The Super Falcons, nine-time African champions, are expected to be among the top seeds when the draw is conducted, a factor that could influence their early-round opponents.

Wednesday’s ceremony in Cairo will therefore provide clarity on the fixtures, timelines and potential hurdles facing Nigeria and other contenders as the road to Los Angeles officially begins.

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Morocco’s senior women’s national team will on Wednesday learn their opponents and qualification pathway to the football event of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games when the Confederation of African Football stages the official draw in Cairo.

The draw, billed for April 29 at CAF headquarters in Egypt, marks the starting point of Africa’s qualifying campaign, with 35 nations set to battle for just two coveted Olympic slots.

For Morocco, the exercise represents another significant step in the country’s rapidly rising profile in women’s football. The Atlas Lionesses, who have emerged as one of Africa’s most improved sides in recent years, will be aiming to secure a historic qualification for the Olympic Games.

The North Africans will face stiff competition from traditional powerhouses such as Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon and Ghana, alongside other ambitious sides including Zambia and Senegal.

Also in the race are Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

CAF confirmed that the qualifiers will unfold across five rounds, with the field gradually trimmed down until only two teams remain to represent Africa at the Olympics in the United States from July 11 to 29, 2028.

Morocco are expected to be among the seeded teams for the early rounds, a reflection of their recent performances on the continental stage, including their strong showing at recent Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.

Wednesday’s draw in Cairo will therefore be crucial in determining Morocco’s early matchups and the potential obstacles on their path, as they seek to translate recent progress into a maiden appearance at the Olympic Games.

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A presale for residents in qualifying areas of Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will begin on April 2, with notification emails for selected buyers set to roll out from March 31 through April 4, LA28 said.

On April 7, the organising committee will notify remaining registrants whether they were selected for a purchase ​window in the first general sales round, known as Drop 1.

“This week marks the first opportunity for fans to claim a seat at ​the LA28 Olympic Games,” LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement.

LA28’s ticketing programme will include 1 ⁠million tickets priced at $28, the lowest price point. Roughly 5% of the Olympic tickets will cost over $1,000, while more than 75% of all tickets, including ​finals, will be under $400 and nearly 50% of all tickets will be under $200.

“Tickets are comparable to and in many cases well under what we see for ​other professional sporting and major entertainment events in the U.S.,” Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28 Senior Vice President, Games Delivery Revenue, told reporters on a call.

RESALE PROGRAMME

Separately, LA28 said its verified multi-platform resale programme would open in 2027, with AXS and Eventim serving as the official secondary ticket marketplace and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets also designated as verified resale ​platforms.

The announcement comes as organisers prepare for the first ticket drop and seek to warn fans against buying from unauthorised sellers before the resale programme ​launches.

LA28 said primary tickets would only be sold through its official ticket service providers, AXS and Eventim. It added that any LA28 tickets offered for resale before 2027 ‌should not ⁠be considered verified.

“While LA28’s resale platforms will not be launched until 2027, having a variety of platforms was critical to providing fans multiple points of access to verified tickets,” Hoover said.

LOCAL PRESALE

Fans who registered for the LA28 ticket draw and whose billing postal codes fall within qualifying counties were automatically entered into the local presale draw. Those selected will receive 48-hour purchase windows running from April 2 through April 6 and must use a payment method tied ​to a billing postal code in an ​eligible county to complete their ⁠purchase.

For both the local presale and Drop 1, selected buyers will have 48 hours to purchase tickets, while any tickets placed in a cart must be checked out within 30 minutes. Buyers may complete multiple transactions during their allotted ​window until they reach the ticket limit.

LA28 said tickets would be available across all Olympic sports, as well ​as for the ⁠opening ceremony at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Fans selected for time slots may buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, plus up to 12 tickets for the soccer tournament that will not count toward the general Olympic-event limit. Ceremony tickets will be capped at ⁠four per ​buyer and will count towards the 12-ticket maximum.

Registrants who are not assigned a time slot in ​either the local presale or Drop 1 will be automatically entered into future draws, LA28 said. Paralympic tickets are due to go on sale in 2027.

Ticket-inclusive hospitality packages from official provider ​On Location are also expected to go on sale in April. Visa will be the official payment method for purchases.

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The branding will appear across competition venues, fan areas, citywide installations, signage, digital platforms and broadcast presentations during the Games, LA28 said.

At the centre of the design is ​the “Superbloom,” a reference to the bursts of wildflowers that can blanket ​parts of Southern California after periods of rain.

LA28 said the ⁠concept was intended as a metaphor for the Games, with years of ​preparation culminating in a short, high-profile global event.

The core graphic is built around ​13 individual blooms, which organizers said represent different elements of Los Angeles, from its entertainment culture to its neighbourhoods, people and native landscape.

The colour palette draws on the Bird of ​Paradise, the official flower of Los Angeles, and is grouped into four ​families – Poppy, Scarlet Flax, Bluebell and Sagebrush – to evoke the region’s terrain and vegetation.

Organizers said ‌the ⁠typographic style was inspired by Los Angeles street signage, including strip mall and hand-painted storefront lettering, in an effort to give the identity a distinctly local feel.

LA28 said the design was developed to work across a wide range ​of settings, from ​nearly century-old venues ⁠to new facilities, while also accounting for broadcast requirements, digital formats and lighting conditions. The organising committee partnered with ​design studio Koto on the project.

The identity was unveiled more ​than ⁠two years before the Olympic opening ceremony in what organizers described as an unusually early rollout, allowing partners and stakeholders more time to incorporate the branding into ⁠their ​materials.

Los Angeles will host the Olympics for a ​third time in 2028, after staging the Games in 1932 and 1984. It will also host ​the Paralympics for the first time.

-Reuters

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More than five million fans from 197 countries and territories have registered at tickets.la28.org since January for a chance to buy tickets, LA28 said, underscoring strong early demand for the Summer Games, which are due ​to open on July 14, 2028.

Fans who register by the March 18 deadline will ​be eligible for a lottery to receive a purchase window for the ⁠first ticket release, scheduled for April 9-19.

There will also be a local presale running from April ​2-6 for eligible residents in parts of Southern California and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host softball ​and canoe slalom.

LA28 said selected applicants would be notified by email between March 31 and April 7. Fans picked for the first sale window will be able to buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, ​subject to availability, with a four-ticket cap for each of the opening and closing ceremonies.

BASEBALL RETURNS

The ​ticketing update comes as the first teams booked places in the Olympic baseball tournament through the 2026 World ‌Baseball ⁠Classic. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela secured qualification spots from the Americas, joining host United States in the six-team field.

Baseball, one of the sports added to the LA28 programme, will return to the Olympics for the first time since the Tokyo Games and will be played at Dodger ​Stadium from July 13-19. ​The remaining three places ⁠will be decided through international qualifying tournaments in 2027 and 2028.

LA28 also confirmed that the Olympic soccer tournament will begin on July 10, four ​days before the opening ceremony, following a decision by the International ​Olympic Committee Executive ⁠Board to extend the competition window.

Organisers said the longer schedule would give teams two additional rest days compared with previous Games.

Group-stage and quarter-final matches will be staged in seven U.S. cities – New York, ⁠Columbus, ​Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, San Diego and Pasadena – with ​the men’s and women’s gold medal matches to be played at the Rose Bowl.

LA28 said kickoff times and the full ​schedule would be released later this year.

-Reuters

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According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.

By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.

“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”

Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”

Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.

“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”

The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.

Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.

Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.

“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”

While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.

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Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”

“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.

Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”

Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.

Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”

“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.

Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”

-Reuters

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He was informed of his disqualification after a meeting with IOC President Kirsty Coventry early in the morning at the sliding venue.

His team said they would appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Coventry told reporters she had wanted to meet the athlete face to face in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse.

“I was not meant to be here but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face,” Coventry told reporters.

“No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory.

“The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly we’ve not been able to find that solution” she added, choking up.

“I really wanted to see him race, It’s been an emotional morning.”

The IOC offered him the opportunity to display his “helmet of remembrance” depicting 24 images of dead compatriots before the start and after the end of Thursday’s race at the Games, while also allowing him to wear a black armband while competing.

“I am disqualified from the race. I will not get my Olympic moment,” said Heraskevych.

The skeleton competition starts later on Thursday.

-Reuters

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“If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social media platform, referencing Hess’ comments. “Very hard to root for someone like this.”

Political tensions have surfaced at the Milano Cortina Olympics, including over the presence of personnel from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agency has faced widespread protests across the U.S. after agents shot and killed two people in Minneapolis last month.

During a news conference in Milan on Friday, Hess, a freestyle skier, said it was “a little hard” to represent the U.S., and he felt mixed emotions.

“There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t,” he said. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

Fellow ski team member Chris Lillis spoke out against ICE at the same news conference, saying he felt heartbroken.

“I think that as a country we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect,” Lillis said. “And I hope that when people look at athletes competing in the Olympics, they realise that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Ski & Snowboard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

-Reuters

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