Baseball and softball, karate, skateboarding, climbing and surfing: these are the five new sportsthat the organizers of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo want to add to theirOlympic program. Under the new rules, the host cities can select the subjects to be included, but the final word rests with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which will decide next August, during theRio Olympics.
They might not be as classical or demanding as the 800 meters track or so popular in the Old World (even though the two best basketball teams in the European Nations tournament will participate in the Rio Olympics, but organizers explain in an official statement that the new sportsare seen as traditional and emerging at the same time and very popular among young people, in Japan and internationally.
Therefore the introduction of these new sportswill be driving force to further promote the Olympic movement and its values, in Japan and all over the world. Moreoversince the suggestedsports are already well established in Japan, no new venues would need to be built and increase overallinfrastructurecosts.
The new sports, if accepted by the International Olympic Committee,would result in 18 new medals, 9 for men and 9 for women,and involve 474 athletes from all over the globe.
Baseball and softball are very likely to be accepted by the IOC, since they were already an Olympic sport from 1996 until 2008 and they are extremelypopular in Japan, while karate, skateboarding, climbing and surfing would be making its debut at the 2020Olympics, so they are less likely to be accepted.
Other sports, bowling, squash and wushu, havealready been rejected by the organizers in the month of June by the very organizers, causing extreme disappointments among the sports supporters.
Under new rules concerning the Olympic Games, Olympic host cities can selectsports they would like to seeincluded at their hosted Games, joining the existing 28 core sports, and suggest them to the IOC, which has the right to accept all or some of them, or refuse them. This is part of a regulations reform initiated by IOC president Thomas Bach last year, in orderto boost ratings as well as to attract greater sponsorship.
