Japan proposes five additional sports for 2020 Olympics

The Tokyo Olympic organisers will propose five sport categories – a baseball/softball joint bid, karate, skateboarding, climbing and surfing – to the worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC), which will formally announce new entries for the 2020 Games ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

A total of 18 medal events, nine each for men and women, can be contested across the sports that are chosen, with organisers recommending in their proposal that eight of those medals are offered in karate. “This is another concrete step forward in the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020, showing a new, fresh and very exciting approach to the Olympic Programme”, – IOC spokesman.

The choice of these new sports was based on their popularity as current sports and as emerging, youth-focused events, all of which are popular both in Japan and internationally. The Tokyo 2020 vision is an ongoing focus of flexibility, innovation and youth, allowing the organizing committee to reflect the sports culture of Tokyo and Japan, destinations that have always captured the imagination of the world’s youth.

Baseball and softball, bowling, roller sports and surfing are among eight finalists vying for inclusion. This is a truly epic decision that will inspire and motivate all my fellow athletes to dream big and go for Gold in 2020. “But above all, I am happy for all our male and female athletes who today can see there is a real chance to fulfil their greatest dream of representing their country in the most important sporting spectacle there is – the Olympic Games”.

Sport Climbing has proposed bouldering and lead and speed combined events for the Games.

“We’re in discussions and we have a great relationship with Major League Baseball”, Fraccari said. Skateboarding would be split across four events, with men’s and women’s editions in the Street and Park disciplines.

Meanwhile, the President of the World Squash Federation N Ramachandran was “devastated” and the news that his sport was left off the list.

“On behalf of WBSC and our athletes, I would like to thank Tokyo 2020 as well as IOC president Thomas Bach, whose Olympic Agenda 2020 vision has paved the way for this extraordinary opportunity”. Judo, another martial art founded in Japan, first joined in 1964, when Tokyo last hosted the Summer Games, and has been included on every programme since 1972. From American Football to Chess, the sports made their cases in writing to the organizers.

Baseball and softball, united under the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), were widely expected to be on the list of recommended sports.

There were eight sports shortlisted for recommendation, with bowling, squash and wushu missing out at the expense of the aforementioned quintet.