Internet Desk: International Olympic Committee started the preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic from Rio yesterday. The Committee finalized the names of the five games to be included in Tokyo 2020. The five games will be Baseball/Softball, Karate, Skateboard, Sports climbing, Surfing.
Tokyo 2020, the first Organising Committee able to take advantage of the change, submitted its proposal for the five new sports to the IOC in September 2015. The Organising Committee for the Tokyo 2020 Games proposed the five new sports in response to the new flexibility provided by Olympic Agenda 2020. Yesterday’s vote was the culmination of a two-year process that began with the unanimous approval of the IOC’s strategic roadmap in 2014.
“We want to take sport to the youth,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “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.”
Baseball and softball, which are considered one sport, make their return for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The IOC also approved karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing as new sports as part of its IOC Session in advance of the Rio Olympics.
“We have a real vision around what these new sports will add to the mix for Tokyo 2020, and it’s a vision that isn’t just limited to these five sports but what we want the Olympic program to do, what we want sport to be in the future of the Olympic Games,” said Kit McConnell, the IOC’s sports director.