The 2020 Olympic Games will feature five new sports after the IOC approved the additions of baseball/softball, sport climbing, surfing, karate and skateboarding.
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“This is really a milestone in the innovation of the Olympic programme which we can then experience in 4 years from now in Tokyo 2020”, IOC president Thomas Bach told delegates in Rio de Janeiro.
“Today’s historic decision by the International Olympic Committee is a “home run” for the Olympics, our sport and the Tokyo 2020 Games, ” World Baseball and Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari said.
The sports were proposed due to their focus on youth – identified as a key priority for the Tokyo Games – as well as the balance between genders, established and emerging sports, team and individual sports and indoor and outdoor sports.
Surfing will make its Olympic Games debut at the 2020 edition in Tokyo – and top Australian officials say the sport’s inclusion is “overdue”.
The sports, along with 18 new events, will be ready to go for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Very much like how snowboarding has become one of the most popular sports at the winter Games, the International Olympic Committee will be hoping that the inclusion of skateboarding and surfing, particularly, will draw people, and importantly marketing dollars, to the behemoth multi-sport event.
Simply put, young surfers and skateboarders across the world think the Olympics aren’t cool enough to feature skateboarding and surfing.
Surfing Australia’s chief executive, Andrew Stark, said it would work with the Australian Institute of Sport to prepare the strongest team possible for the Games.
“If not, the competition of baseball will not fulfil completely and perhaps if we accept baseball for 2020 it will be hard for baseball to be included in the future”.
“We are excited about the IOC’s announcement restoring Baseball and Softball to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo”, Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred said. This decision brings back some sports and adds new ones to charm the younger audiences.
“There are more participants in skateboarding than most sports so I feel like they (the Olympics) need our credibility and they need our excitement level in their Summer Games”, skateboarding icon Tony Hawk said recently.
They are also innovative and exciting sports that are well supported in Japan and beyond.
It allows host cities to propose new sports for their Olympics.
Surfing will have two shortboard events for 40 competitors.
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The report identified the challenge the International Olympic Committee faced to stay relevant to youth amid changing sport participation and consumption patterns and growing competition from mega-events such as the X Games.
