International Olympic Committee Names Five Sports To The Olympic Lineup Starting In Tokyo 2020
Rio de Janiero, Brazil – On August 3, 2016, 130 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted for and officially announced that starting at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo athletes from around the world will be able to compete in five new Olympic sports:
- Climbing
- Surfing
- Skateboard
- Baseball/Softball
- Karate
This is a major step in the modernization of the Olympic games. These five new sports will add 18 events and 474 athletes. The climbing event will include sport, bouldering, and speed climbing events featuring 40 climbers (20 men and 20 women). Medals will be awarded “based on the combined results of all three disciplines” according to Climbing.com.
IOC President Thomas Bach states that “We want to take sport to the youth. With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us. We have to go to them. Tokyo 2020’s balanced proposal fulfils all of the goals of the Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendation that allowed it. Taken together, the five sports are an innovative combination of established and emerging, youth-focused events that are popular in Japan and will add to the legacy of the Tokyo Games.”
