While all eyes are on the Summer Olympics in Rio (and between Zika, polluted water and a collapsing economy, there's reason for that), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) just announced that five new sports will be considered Olympic games at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Expect baseball/softball, karate, skateboard, sports climbing and surfing to take over your TV screens starting July 24, 2020.
Although baseball and softball actually made separate appearances between 1992 and 2008, they were jointly readmitted this time around. The other sports were never included before.
The "vote was the culmination of a two-year process that began with the unanimous approval of the IOC’s strategic roadmap in 2014," said the Committee in an official statement on olympics.org. Specifically, the roadmap called for special attention on flexibility and youth–in seeming efforts to develop the Olympic programs in ways that will cater, represent and satisfy all audiences.
“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 fulfills 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,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.
The newly approved games will join the list of competitions already on the Olympic roster. In total, 18 events and 474 athletes will be added in 2020.
Young Tony Hawks, gear up, you might be America's next Olympic medalist.