IOC Adds New Sports for 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics

The election win was expected after the IOC Executive Board last month approved the package of five sports.

The IOC session in the Brazilian city voted unanimously with a show of hands in favour of the sports which will make a one-off appearance in the Games.

He added that “this International Olympic Committee decision will also provide a further boost to our game here (in Germany)”.

It’s the news felt in skate communities around the world; the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will undoubtedly include skateboarding as an official competition.

“This will help make the games one of the most innovative games in our history, ” International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates said.

Baseball had been in the Olympics since 1992 before the committee nixed it and softball during the 2012 Olympics, replacing them with golf and rugby sevens, according to CBS Sports. The IOC voted both out in 2005. Baseball and softball are global sports that belong in the Olympics.

The inclusion of softball and baseball was met with great excitement. The games will be played at a shared venue In Yokohama.

“We want to take sport to the youth”, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said. They are Baseball/Softball, Karate, Skateboard, Sports climbing, and surfing.

The list of Olympics sports is about to get longer, again.

Coming in 2020, sports that you actually give a shit about!

Until 2000, baseball Olympians were required to be amateurs, but there was a lack of professionals even after that, considering the Summer Olympics take place in the heat of the Major League Baseball season. It is unclear, however, if baseball will feature the world’s best players from the MLB in the United States.

If not, Carraro said, said it will be “difficult for baseball to be included in the future” beyond the Tokyo Games.

“It just brings up another status that these guys aren’t just a bunch of surf bums or beach bums, and it’s legitimate that people have goals to go and reach and actually go to the Olympics”, said Kelly Sorensen, owner of Own the Beach Surf Shop.

Tokyo will host skateboarding, which will comprise two street and two park competitions with 20 male and 20 female participants.

Sport Climbing will be just one of the popular events at next year’s edition of The World Games in Wroclaw, Poland (20 -30 July 2017).