The 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles will mark the debut of a new track and field event: the mixed 4x100m relay. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Wednesday that the relay will join a dozen new events added to the Olympic program for 2028.
The mixed 4x100m relay has yet to be contested on the international stage, but its inaugural run will take place next month at the 2025 World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China, on May 10 and 11. The order at World Relays will follow the format of woman (first), woman, man, man (anchor).
The mixed 4x100m relay will make its Olympic debut at the LA 2028 Games ⚡️
The event will be introduced to the World Athletics Relays this year in Guangzhou and will also take place at the inaugural 2026 Ultimate Championships in Budapest 🌏 pic.twitter.com/TeEH8inCqF
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) April 9, 2025
Inspired by the mixed 4x400m relay, which first appeared at the 2017 World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, the mixed 4x100m event is expected to bring more energy to the track. The mixed 4x400m gained widespread popularity and was first included in the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. It made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 and has since been a staple in the World Athletics program.
In a 2024 interview with Canadian Running, four-time Canadian Olympic sprinter and men’s 4x100m relay gold medallist Aaron Brown called the 4x100m mixed relay “a chaotic and entertaining addition to track and field.”
Should World Athletics introduce a mixed 4x100m relay?
The most recent addition to the Olympic track and field program was the marathon race walk mixed relay at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which replaced the men’s 50 km race walk. The mixed 4x100m relay will not be run at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, but fans will see the event contested the following year for the inaugural 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest.
World records for the mixed 4x100m relay will officially be recognized as of January 1, 2026.
In addition to the mixed relay, the L.A. Games will have several other disciplines making their debuts, including the 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly in swimming, a mixed-gender golf event, and a mixed-gender team competition in artistic gymnastics.
The 2028 Games will also set a historic milestone for gender equality, with female athlete quota spots (5,655) surpassing male athlete quota spots (5,543) for the first time across the 31 Olympic sports. For more information about the additions and changes to the 2028 Olympic program, you can view the details, here.
