The International Olympic Committee unanimously rubber-stamped the decision taken by its executive board in June, approving the inclusion of skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing, karate and a joint baseball/softball bid, which is expected to significantly boost local support for the Olympics.
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The five sports will add 470 athletes and 18 new events to the next Olympics.
The inclusion of these sports will not affect event quotas for existing sports, and is not binding for future games. Under new International Olympic Committee rules, local host organisers can propose the inclusion of at least one additional sport for their Games. “We’d anticipated that we had a really good shot at getting back in, given that baseball and softball are so popular in Japan”.
There will be some amount of nostalgia for most people, as skateboarding and, to a lesser extent, surfing were both super popular for a stretch in the late ’90s and early ’00s thanks to the X Games and the various video games that were released for both sports.
Baseball/softball return after last being in the Olympic programme in 2012, while karate came third time lucky after being rejected for 2012 and 2016.
International Olympic Committee executive John Coates declared that the additional sports could “help make the Tokyo Games the most innovative in history”, and Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto is keen to harness the latest technology.
The sports were presented as a package of five, and are only guaranteed to be contested at the Games in 2020, and not at any subsequent editions. The Olympics will include both men’s and women’s park and street events, with a total of 80 skaters – 40 men and 40 women – competing in them. Snowboarding has been one of the Olympics’ most successful additions, with new events added in three Games including the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
Today’s vote was the culmination of a two-year process that began with the unanimous approval of the IOC’s strategic roadmap in 2014. Softball first appeared in the Olympics in 1996, while baseball spent decades an exhibition before becoming a medal sport in 1992.
Sasagawa added karate officials must work so that the sport will remain an Olympic event beyond Tokyo. 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.
“This is a game-changing moment for Surfing”.
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‘With the many options that young people have, we can not expect any more that they will come automatically to us. Waveriders will be awarded points for technique and style and wave selection as Coates was clear in saying that the event should be held on natural waves, in Tokyo 2020’s case, at Chiba Prefecture’s Shidashita Point.
