Skateboarding, Climbing, Baseball Make Short List for 2020 Olympics

The Tokyo organizing committee recommended five additional sports – baseball/softball, surfing, skateboarding, karate and climbing – for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Bowling, squash and wushu failed to make the cut from among eight finalists.

The recommendation will be submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which will make a final decision in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016.

In December 2014, the committee nixed a 28-sport limit, and instead set a cap of 10,500 athletes and 310 medal events at the Summer Games. If the IOC gives the go-ahead it will mean an extra 18 events involving an additional 474 athletes. Baseball and karate are particularly popular in Japan while surfing, skateboarding and climbing are said to particularly appeal to youth.  

“This package of events represents both traditional and emerging, youth-focused events, all of which are popular both in Japan and internationally,” said the organizing committee in a statement. “They will serve as a driving force to further promote the Olympic Movement and its values, with a focus on youth appeal, and will add value to the Games by engaging the Japanese population and new audiences worldwide, reflecting the Tokyo 2020 Games vision.”

Under the “Olympic Agenda 2020″ program adopted by the IOC last December, host cities are allowed to propose one or more additional sports for their games which are popular in their country. Baseball and karate are particularly popular in Japan although surfing, skateboarding and climbing appeal to younger consumers the games are trying to attract.

It would be the first Olympic appearance for all of five sports except for baseball and softball. Baseball and softball have been out of the Olympics since the 2008 Beijing Games. Baseball had joined the Olympics as a medal sport in 1992 and softball in 1996.

Many organizations supporting individual sports issued statements supporting their sport’s inclusion.

“Today’s announcement by Tokyo 2020 to include baseball/softball into its proposal for additional events at the 2020 Olympic Games is an exciting step forward to hopefully seeing our game return to this great platform,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.