The 2020 Olympic Games will feature five new sports after the IOC approved the additions of baseball/softball, sport climbing, surfing, karate and skateboarding.
Advertisement
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. The IOC added the sports in an effort to add events that would be popular among younger athletes, especially in Japan.
With changes to the IOC rules for Olympic events, 5 new sporting competitions will be heading to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games next time around.
The decision will add 18 events and 474 athletes, even as the International Olympic Committee tries to balance innovation with a promise to make the Games easier to stage and less bloated. Those sports will have the same number of teams but fewer female athletes as softball teams have 15 players and baseball teams have 24.
As a response to the present flexibility offered by the 2020 Olympic Agenda, five new games are proposed by the organizing committee. The two sports – which have been absent in the 2012 and 2016 games – were voted back in. “Here we go now”.
The move forms part of IOC president Thomas Bach’s “Olympic Agenda 2020” plan, which aims to rejuvenate the Olympics and make them more appealing to younger viewers. Wednesday’s approval is for the Tokyo Games only. 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! The events are expected to be held at the Prefecture of Chiba. We are already seeing increased popularity of the sport across the world and the Olympic Games will provide an incredible platform to further showcase Surfing and its core values.
Currently, the Summer Olympics offers a variety of sports.
Surfing, with 20 men and 20 women athletes, will take place in the sea, instead of on artificial waves, likely in the Prefecture of Chiba.
“It definitely puts surfing on another level”, said three-time women’s world champion of surfing Carissa Moore.
Advertisement
“This will be a “fiesta” for the entire karate world”, added Espinos, a 68-year old Spaniard who still practices karate, like 100 million other devotees worldwide.
