The IOC in December must approve a list of sports for inclusion in the '20 Tokyo Games before they are put to a vote next year, but the odds are "greatly in favor" of all the candidates -- baseball/softball, karate, surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing -- "making the cut," according to Christopher Clarey of the N.Y. TIMES. What the Tokyo organizers "surely wanted most were sports like baseball, softball and karate with deep roots in Japanese culture and in which Japanese can contend for medals." What the IOC wanted most "was a credible youth movement, even at the risk of overloading a Summer Olympic program already creaking under the combined load of traditional mainstays (track and field, swimming and gymnastics), global juggernauts (soccer and basketball), niche diversions (trampoline, and fencing) and downright oddities (modern pentathlon)." Adding just surfing or sport climbing or skateboarding "would have created a novelty ripple, like adding BMX racing" in '08. Adding all three at one time "risks going over the top but sends a much stronger message and is certainly more bold and generation-shifting than simply reinstating baseball and softball" and adding "yet another martial art." Until now, the Winter Games "have been quicker to cater to youthful tastes." Despite 28 sports already in the Summer Games, there is "no serious suggestion for now of tossing anybody out of the club" for Tokyo to "make room for the next wave." Instead, the IOC "plans to allow a maximum of 500 athletes from the five new sports." That will come "on top of its cap for existing sports of approximately 10,500." This seems an "untenable long-term strategy if the Olympics are to remain manageable." But at least for '20, this inclusive strategy "should keep the stakeholders happy" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/2).
