The prospect of five new sports joining the Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020 took another significant step towards becoming reality on Wednesday after the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) supported their inclusion.
The five sports — karate, skateboarding, sports climbing, surfing and baseball/softball — have all been recommended for inclusion by IOC bosses during the first day of their three-day meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
An IOC statement said the five sports, which have been considered as a single package, ‘offer a key focus on youth, which is at the heart of the Games vision for Tokyo 2020’.
‘They represent a combination of well-established and emerging sports with significant popularity in Japan and beyond,’ the statement added. ‘They include team sports and individual sports; indoor sports and outdoor sports; and ‘urban’ sports with a strong appeal to youth.’
The IOC executive board’s recommendation comes after the organising committee for Tokyo 2020 proposed the five new sports for inclusion last September. Their proposal was permitted under the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 initiative, which gives host cities the option of suggesting new sports and events for inclusion in their edition of the Games.
The addition of the sports would add 18 events and 474 athletes to the Games in four years’ time and would not affect the number of sports and athletes already part of the programme. IOC members are expected to rubber-stamp their inclusion at the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro in August.
In its statement, the IOC said the changes, if approved, would represent ‘the most comprehensive evolution of the Olympic programme in modern history.’
Reacting to Wednesday’s announcement, World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) president Riccardo Fraccari said: “It is an honour for our global sport — and a great day for our millions of male and female athletes, and fans around the world — to be represented within this new and innovative youth-focused Olympic sports package.”
The joint bid from baseball and softball, whose recommendation was widely expected given both sports’ popularity in Japan, has been put forward for two events – a men’s event comprising six teams and 144 athletes, and a women’s event comprising six teams and 90 athletes.
Karate, another sport with historic ties to Japan, has been proposed for eight events: two in the Kata discipline, with 20 athletes across the men’s and women’s events, and six in the Kumite discipline, which would feature a total of 60 athletes, 30 in each gender.
Meanwhile, the Tokyo organisers’ proposal calls for skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing to all feature 40 athletes, 20 from each gender. Skateboarding would be split across four events, with men’s and women’s editions in the Street and Park disciplines. Sport climbing would have two events, featuring bouldering, lead and speed combined categories, while surfing would be contested on short boards.
Wednesday’s recommendation comes on the first day of a busy meeting for IOC bigwigs in Lausanne. Other issues to be discussed this week include delays and political instability dogging preparations for this summer’s Games in Rio, accusations of state-sponsored doping in Russia, recent revelations concerning positive drug tests from the past two summer Games, and allegations of vote-buying in Tokyo’s winning bid for 2020.
The prospect of five new sports joining the Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020 took another significant step towards becoming reality on Wednesday after the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) supported their inclusion.
The five sports — karate, skateboarding, sports climbing, surfing and baseball/softball — have all been recommended for inclusion by IOC bosses during the first day of their three-day meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
An IOC statement said the five sports, which have been considered as a single package, ‘offer a key focus on youth, which is at the heart of the Games vision for Tokyo 2020’.
‘They represent a combination of well-established and emerging sports with significant popularity in Japan and beyond,’ the statement added. ‘They include team sports and individual sports; indoor sports and outdoor sports; and ‘urban’ sports with a strong appeal to youth.’
The IOC executive board’s recommendation comes after the organising committee for Tokyo 2020 proposed the five new sports for inclusion last September. Their proposal was permitted under the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 initiative, which gives host cities the option of suggesting new sports and events for inclusion in their edition of the Games.
The addition of the sports would add 18 events and 474 athletes to the Games in four years’ time and would not affect the number of sports and athletes already part of the programme. IOC members are expected to rubber-stamp their inclusion at the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro in August.
In its statement, the IOC said the changes, if approved, would represent ‘the most comprehensive evolution of the Olympic programme in modern history.’
Reacting to Wednesday’s announcement, World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) president Riccardo Fraccari said: “It is an honour for our global sport — and a great day for our millions of male and female athletes, and fans around the world — to be represented within this new and innovative youth-focused Olympic sports package.”
The joint bid from baseball and softball, whose recommendation was widely expected given both sports’ popularity in Japan, has been put forward for two events – a men’s event comprising six teams and 144 athletes, and a women’s event comprising six teams and 90 athletes.
Karate, another sport with historic ties to Japan, has been proposed for eight events: two in the Kata discipline, with 20 athletes across the men’s and women’s events, and six in the Kumite discipline, which would feature a total of 60 athletes, 30 in each gender.
Meanwhile, the Tokyo organisers’ proposal calls for skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing to all feature 40 athletes, 20 from each gender. Skateboarding would be split across four events, with men’s and women’s editions in the Street and Park disciplines. Sport climbing would have two events, featuring bouldering, lead and speed combined categories, while surfing would be contested on short boards.
Wednesday’s recommendation comes on the first day of a busy meeting for IOC bigwigs in Lausanne. Other issues to be discussed this week include delays and political instability dogging preparations for this summer’s Games in Rio, accusations of state-sponsored doping in Russia, recent revelations concerning positive drug tests from the past two summer Games, and allegations of vote-buying in Tokyo’s winning bid for 2020.
