Five sports, including baseball, skateboarding and surfing, are on track to feature at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday recommended them to attract a younger audience.
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In all, 18 events and 474 athletes would be added to the Tokyo 2020 program with the approval of the new sports.
Surfing, also popular in the island nation, is seen as an exciting new youthful sport that can add a new edge to the Games.
“On behalf of our sport, we thank IOC President Thomas Bach for his Agenda 2020 vision – which has sparked this Olympic evolution – and the entire IOC Executive Board for today’s recommendation”, added Fraccari, who was speaking on behalf of men’s baseball and women’s softball’s inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games.
“We have looked into various candidate sites and International Olympic Committee experts have seen them”.
The IOC executive board adopted a resolution Wednesday promising to take “further decisive action” in the fight against doping.
“The re-analysis programme for the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and London 2012 will be further extended”, the IOC said in a statement.
A Turkish boxer and a Russian cyclist have been provisionally suspended after doping samples from the 2012 London Olympics came back positive in retesting.
He notes that baseball and softball have a huge following in Japan, and karate has a long tradition in the country.
Baseball and softball’s global reach, loyal fan-base and positioning across numerous biggest sports markets, including in Japan, offers a unique opportunity to further spread and elevate the Olympic brand while connecting with new audiences and more young people, said the WBSC president.
He says NBC, which holds the U.S. TV rights to the Tokyo Games, has suggested holding opening skateboarding events on the eve of the opening ceremony.
Skateboarding had been the main point of contention, due to a lack of a unified global governing body.
Meeting at its Lausanne, Switzerland headquarters from Wednesday to Friday, the IOC’s executive board will receive a briefing on the re-testing campaign and from WADA chief Craig Reedie on the main findings of the Russian Federation probe.
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The five sports hoping to join Tokyo 2020 have been whittled down from an initial list of 26 hopefuls which included tug of war, polo and the World Underwater Federation – which oversees sports such as free diving, spearfishing and submerged hockey.
