The unanimous vote to add the sports was described as, “the most comprehensive evolution of the Olympic programme in modern history”, and we have to say that the bold move to add the less conventional events has left us totally stoked!
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The 2020 Olympic Games will feature five new sports after the IOC approved the additions of baseball/softball, sport climbing, surfing, karate and skateboarding.
Tokyo hopes that the 2020 Games, through the five sports, will show how the quadrennial sporting event should be in the future, he said.
Whether or not you agree with the sports’ inclusion, one thing is for sure; it gives 474 athletes a dream opportunity to compete at the Olympics.
There will be gender equality across the board, with the exception of baseball/softball, which features rosters of 24 men and 15 women, respectively.
The last several Olympic Games have seen the absence of both sports, which last appeared in the summer of 2008.
Baseball and softball, proposed to be staged in Yokohama, will each have a competition involving six teams.
“Baseball and softball are global sports that belong in the Olympics”, he said, adding that their approval “will allow fans throughout the world to again enjoy baseball and softball on the Olympic stage”.
The two were rejected in separate bids to return for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, so they combined forces to put forward a single bid for inclusion in Tokyo. “The goal is to have the best players possible”.
Skateboarding, with two street and two park events involving 40 competitors each (20 male, 20 female), will be in Tokyo.
Yokohama Stadium, the home field for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, a professional baseball team, is a candidate site for baseball and softball. We have been fighting for many, many years to become an Olympic sport and it hasn’t been easy, but in the end we have achieved it.
“To make the competition more authentic and competitive, the surfing events will be held in the sea rather than on artificial waves”.
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International Surfing Association (ISL) president Fernando Aguerre of Argentina told reporters: “I am very happy that we are going to bring this special energy of surfing to the Olympics”.
