Five New Sports to Be Added to the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020
/Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee approved the addition of baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing to the 2020 Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo.
This will mark the first appearance of these sports at the Olympics, except for baseball/softball which was last on the Olympic program at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The additional sports will not be binding on future Olympic games and will not impact existing Olympic sports. In total, inclusion of the new sports will add 18 events and 474 athletes. These new sports are anticipated to attract a younger generation of athletes to the Olympics.
Without knowing these five sports were to be added to the next Olympics, we ran a local restaurant drawing on the CVG Facebook Page, asking entrants to indicate what additional sport they would like to see at the next summer Olympics. Here's the interesting assortment of responses we received:
- Softball, surfing and karate all received a number of mentions
- Hula hooping
- Dodgeball
- Auto racing
- Ukelele playing
- Donut eating
- Handball
- Pickleball
- Wake boarding
- Yo Yo-ing
- Netball
- MMA
- Shuffleboard
- Shopping
- Bowling
- Extreme video gaming
- Lacrosse
- Football
- Billiards
- Hopscotch
- Juggling
- Tiddly winks
- Belly flopping
- Pokemon Go
- Disc golf
- Jousting
- Competitive eating
- BMX racing
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Roller Derby
- Cheerleading
- Mini golf
- Synchronized juggling
- Speed knitting
- Ballroom dancing
A clever group of folks we have on our Facebook page.