The International Olympic Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to add five new sports to the 2020 Games in Tokyo, bringing back softball and baseball while introducing surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing for the first time.
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The five sports will add 470 athletes and 18 new events to the next Olympics.
The process of planning the summer Games, to be held in he nation’s capital in four year’s time, can now be expedited, the Tokyo organizers said, but they maintained that the newly-added sports may not become regular features in Games held after 2020.
In addition the other four sports are skateboarding, surfing, climbing and karate, but again, the most noteworthy are baseball and softball.
But speaking at the International Olympic Committee meeting in Rio on Wednesday, Mori, a former prime minister, welcomed Koike, who will be responsible for saving Tokyo’s reputation as host for the Games. Skateboarding, with two street and two park events involving 40 competitors each (20 male, 20 female), will be in Tokyo.
Skateboarding is arguably the most surprising inclusion to the 2020 Olympics, with the sport not having an all-encompassing world championship event.
“Their hearts were broken that they weren’t allowed to participate for their country at the Olympics in the sport that they had a passion for”, he said.
“Our project revealed generational differences in attitudes towards action sports inclusion in the Olympic Games, as well as changing perceptions among those working most closely with the IOC to prepare their sports for possible Olympic inclusion”, said Wheaton.
“Baseball is part of Japanese culture, it has to be in the Olympics”, Cromartie said.
The five, including a combined baseball-softball bid, were put forward for inclusion a year ago by Tokyo organizers.
Baseball and softball each will have a six-team tournament.
An online petition addressed to IOC president Thomas Bach stated, “Skateboarding is not a “sport” and we do not want skateboarding exploited and transformed to fit into the Olympic Program”.
The five new sports were picked from 26 battling to be included in the 2020 Olympics.
“I think it is great the Olympics has recognised surfing because it is such a global sport these days and for the people lucky enough to be competing it will be very prestigious so I am extremely happy”, he said.
With third-ranked Roger Federer and fourth-ranked Stan Wawrinka both out with injuries, fifth-ranked Rafael Nadal is third in the Olympic men’s singles seedings announced by the International Tennis Federation, the sport’s governing body.
The decision comes as a first under Agenda 2020, a set of recommendations meant to make bidding for and hosting the Games more affordable and sustainable.
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Surfers are already speaking out about the decision, with John John Florence and Carissa Moore supporting the addition of surfing to the Olympic Games.
