It’s the news felt in skate communities around the world; the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will undoubtedly include skateboarding as an official competition.
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This was attested by IOC President Thomas Bach who said, “We want to take sport to the youth”.
The 2016 Rio Olympic Games aren’t even officially underway yet and we’re already ready for them to be over.
According to the IOC’s 2020 reform agenda approved in 2014, each city hosting future Games may propose including new sports.
In a unanimous vote, the 90 IOC members backed the executive board’s recommendation to bring in the five sports, which will add 470 athletes to the Olympic Village and 18 new events in four years’ time. The Tokyo Games will feature 33 sports and about 11,000 athletes, compared with the usual number of 28 sports and 10,500 athletes.
The last several Olympic Games have seen the absence of both sports, which last appeared in the summer of 2008.
After including sport climbing as one of the demonstration sports in the Youth Olympic Games held in Nanjing, China past year, it is now officially a part of the list of Olympic Games.
International Surfing Association president, Fernando Aguerre, said it was a “game-changing moment” for the sport.
World Baseball and Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari said following the vote, “today’s historic decision by the International Olympic Committee is a “home run” for the Olympics, our sport and the Tokyo 2020 Games”. Like that phrase you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression – we are going to give our best impression. In 1992, it was officially added to the program. “The current athlete and event quotas are unaffected”, the International Olympic Committee clarified. Karate will have 80 athletes competing in mens and womens Kumite and Kata events, while surfing will have two shortboard events for 40 competitors.
It makes sense, then, that some of the world’s most notoriously “cool” sports ― surfing and skateboarding, in particular ― made the cut. The events are expected to be held at the Prefecture of Chiba.
Major League Baseball owners and the players’ association would need to cut games from their 162-game schedule to accommodate players competing in the Olympics.
Sport Climbing will be just one of the popular events at next year’s edition of The World Games in Wroclaw, Poland (20 -30 July 2017).
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“To lead our country into this Olympics is something, honestly, that I never thought I’d have the opportunity to do”, Phelps said.
