Five sports, including baseball, skateboarding and surfing, will feature at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after the International Olympic Committee voted them in on Wednesday in an attempt to revamp the Games programme to attract a younger audience.
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While karate, with its origins being in Japan, is an obvious choice, the inclusion of some of these new sports, however, hasn’t gone down well with everyone, with many claiming that netball and squash are more deserving of a chance.
Agreements have been reached with all the world’s pro baseball leagues except those in the United States and thus it is not completely certain whether Major League players will be allowed to compete, said Carraro.
From 2009 on, a series of presentations was made along with other sports to see who emerged at the top for an opening on the Olympic program at the Tokyo Games. But the report released by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport shows that of 8,500 leadership positions at global sports federations affiliated with the worldwide Olympic Committee, only 5.7 percent of federation presidents, 12.2 percent of vice presidents and 13.1 percent of executive committee members are women.
According to OIC, the five new sports will add 18 events and 474 athletes, with equal numbers of women and men for all sports except baseball/softball.
The five were put forward for inclusion a year ago by Tokyo organizers, taking advantage of new International Olympic Committee rules that allow host cities to propose the inclusion of additional sports for their Games. “With the many options that young people have, we can not expect any more that they will come automatically to us”.
The 2016 Rio Olympic Games aren’t even officially underway yet and we’re already ready for them to be over.
Karate will be included in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.What to Expect?
The sports chosen were proposed by the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, and are disciplines with established or growing popularity in Japan.
Wednesday’s approval only applies to the 2020 Games. Skateboarding and sports climbing will no doubt add a different element of competition and athleticism.
The IOC said that discussions on the event programme in the existing 28 Olympic sports for 2020 are to be finalized by the executive board by mid-2017.
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Another skateboarder, a 12-year-old Tyson Zane, said finally they will make it a real sport and could represent America. However, neither softball nor baseball were approved beyond Tokyo, where baseball is the most popular sport. “We feel extremely happy (just) as we are sure that all the karate community in the whole world is feeling”, said World Karate Federation President, Antonio Espinos.
