Female athletes will be in the majority at an Olympics for the first time at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that there would be 5,333 core quota spots for female athletes (50.7 per cent) and 5,167 for men.
The landmark announcement saw the women's football tournament expanded to 16 teams from 12, while the men's competition would shrink from 16 to 12.
Football has been a key part of the Games since being held as a demonstration sport at the 1900 and 1904 Games and officially becoming a medal sport in 1908.
The Games of 1924 and 1928, both won by Uruguay, were considered by FIFA as the official championships of the world but, spurred into action by the popularity of football matches at the Games and the increasing professionalism of the game — which was at odds with the Olympic ideal of amateurism — FIFA swiftly arranged its own tournament in 1930.
Women's football has long considered the Olympics a major part of the international calendar, while on the men's side it has long paled in comparison to the FIFA World Cup.
While women's teams regularly appear at full strength, the men's tournament is limited to a majority under-23 squad, with only three over-age players permitted per squad.
The IOC said the reason for the sharp increase in women's soccer teams was the rapidly growing popularity of women's team sports, especially in the United States, and that change in the competition format reflected that rapid growth.
"We wanted to do something to reflect that growth and equally with the United States being the home of the highest level of popularity of women's football," IOC sports director Kit McConnell told a press conference.
The ascendancy of the women's tournament will take place 32 years on from the first women's Olympic football tournament which took place in Atlanta in 1996.
That was won by the USA, the first of their record five titles, including the gold they won in Paris last year.
McConnell said the IOC had discussed the issue with both LA Games organisers and world soccer's governing body FIFA before going through with the changes.
Additionally, two more women's teams were added in water polo — which Australia won the silver medal in Paris — so it would gain parity with the men's event at 12 nations each.
Water polo was first contested by women at an Olympics in 2000, where Australia won gold in the six-team tournament at Sydney.
Men's water polo has appeared at every Olympics since 1900 and has featured 12 teams since 1976.
Boxing, which only recently had its continued status as an Olympic sport confirmed, will have one extra women's weight class to equal the men's line-up of seven medal events.
"The message of gender equality is a really important one for us," McConnell said.
"We really thank LA 28 for supporting this. It's central to their vision as well."
The Paris Olympics saw an equal number of events for men and women for the first time at a Games, the culmination of a 128-year battle for equality.
After first competing at the 1900 Games, women were only able to compete for a medal in every event at a Games in 2012.
The LA Games will have a total of 351 medal events in all sports, a new record for a Summer Games and 22 more than at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Of those, 161 will be for women, 165 for men, with 25 mixed events — an increase on six from Paris.
The total number of athletes is unchanged at 10,500.
Those mixed events include the expansion of the Olympic golf competition to include a mixed teams event, which could see Aussie siblings Min Woo and Minjee Lee team up.
Both Lee siblings competed in Paris, but with a men's and women's tournament organised separately, were unable to compete together.
"The International Golf Federation is thrilled with the IOC Executive Board's decision to approve the addition of a mixed-team event to the Olympic Golf program," the IGF said in a statement, adding that more details would be released next week.
Another key addition includes a mixed 4x100m relay on the athletics track to go alongside the existing 4x400m mixed relay.
Artistic gymnastics, coastal rowing, table tennis and archery will also feature new mixed team events.
Swimming, meanwhile, will feature 50m sprints across butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke for the first time, not just freestyle.
At the last World Aquatics Championships in Doha in 2024, Australia won four medals across the six finals, including two golds: Isaac Cooper (50m back gold), Iona Anderson (50m back silver), Sam Williamson (50m breaststroke gold) and Cameron McEvoy (50m fly bronze).
Kaylee McKeown, who did not compete at the Worlds in 2024, is the current 50m backstroke world record holder.
The five sports proposed by the LA Games organising committee — baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash — will have an extra 698 quota places.
The landmark progress for women athletes was made at an online board meeting on Wednesday co-chaired in Lausanne for the first time by Kirsty Coventry as president-elect since her win last month.
In June she will formally replace her mentor Thomas Bach and become the IOC's first female leader in its 131-year history.
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