The decision is another vote of confidence for IOC president Thomas Bach’s “Olympic Agenda 2020” plan to freshen up the Games and keep them relevant for younger audiences. Among the new Olympic sports approved on Wednesday for the 2020 Games in Tokyo is surfing.
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The five sports, which were proposed for inclusion last September by Tokyo organisers, were approved unanimously by the International Olympic Committee members.
The historic change stemmed from a proposal from the Organizing Committee of Tokyo 2020 submitted in September 2015. Wednesday’s approval was for the Tokyo Games only.
In addition the other four sports are skateboarding, surfing, climbing and karate, but again, the most noteworthy are baseball and softball.
From this new development for the Toyko summer games, 18 events are reported to be added, with 474 athletes participating who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to compete for medals in an Olympics, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Wednesday’s vote will increase the number of total sports at the Tokyo Games from 28 to 33, and total athletes from 10,500 to 11,000, approximately.
The 2016 Rio Olympic Games aren’t even officially underway yet and we’re already ready for them to be over. 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.
For the Olympics, a special “Tokyo 2020 skateboarding commission” was formed to run the sport. The Olympic competition will mark the 50th anniversary of the first karate world championships.
According to Surfer Magazine, the premier ocean board sport will not be taking place in artificial wave pools, but in the open ocean, which makes planning the event’s venues and scheduling a much more complicated task due to the unpredictability of swell conditions.
Softball and baseball were ousted from the 2012 Olympics following a vote from the International Olympic Committee in 2005 in which softball, needing a simple majority of votes (53), received just 52.
Baseball and softball, which are considered one sport, make their return for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Surfing, also popular in the island nation, is seen as an exciting new youthful sport that can add a new edge to the Games.
While the decision represents a major moment in the timeline of surfing and skateboarding, not everyone is head over heels about the vote.
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“This is a game-changing moment for surfing”, said worldwide federation president Fernando Aguerre.
