The five new Olympic sports – in detail

Here’s your guide to the new sports:

 

Baseball/Softball – An obvious pick by Tokyo, baseball is the most popular sport in Japan. The organising body is the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) – a merger founded in 2013, to bring the softball and baseball movements together under one roof. It also has Olympic history – having been in the Games from 1992 to 2008. However the greatest challenge will now come in convining the MLB, the biggest baseball league in the world, to send its best players to Tokyo. The MLB has previously said it would be reluctant to put the league on hiatus in the middle of the summer to accommodate the Games.

 

Karate – Another obvious pick by Tokyo, the Japanese sport will make its first appearance at the Games. It will become the third martial art sport with Judo and Taekwondo. Karate’s difficulty has, and continues to be, recognising the many styles within the sport. The governing body, the World Karate Federation (WKF), only recognises light contact rules, which would mean full contact karate would be excluded.

Skateboarding – Another sport making its Olympic debut, the inclusion of skateboarding is at the heart of Thomas Bach’s aim to make the Olympic movement appeal to a younger generation. The governance of the sport remains a problem though – as they do not have an international federation recognised by the IOC. Instead they had to apply for the Games via Fédération Internationale Roller Sports (FIRS). Two organisations are in dispute over who runs the sport – the International Skateboard Federation (ISF) and the World Skateboarding Federation (WSF). This also leads to issues surrounding anti-doping procedures, as no one body is overseeing the sport. The 2020 organising body will likely be a mix of the three groups – with FIRS and the ISF the most likely to be involved. Skateboarding has already proved itself a big commercial success at events like the X-Games.

Surfing – Never has one man worked so hard for a sport to be included in the Games. Surfing’s inclusion in 2020 is down to International Surfing Association’s (ISA) President Fernando Aguerre. Founder of the brand Reef, Aguerre has been ISA president for 22 years – and has fought tirelessly to get his sport included in the Games. Surfing boasts a high profile international elite franchise – the World Surf League. It has had controversies on whether it should be on an artificial wave or at sea – with natural waves winning out for 2020.

 

Climbing – Climbing is perhaps the least well known of the five new sports. Overseen by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), competition climbing is only 30 years old. It has a large following in central Europe and Japan – who boast 500,000 climbers.

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