Badminton will make its Paralympics debut in Tokyo in '20 after the Int'l Paralympic Committee on Tuesday "included it in the first batch of approved sports for the event," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. Badminton, "hugely popular in Asia, is already an Olympic sport." IPC President Philip Craven said, "The IPC looks forward to working with the Badminton World Federation over the coming years to manage their smooth transition into the 2020 sports program." The IPC approved 16 sports, including athletics, archery, equestrian, powerlifting, rowing and wheelchair basketball, among others, "as part of the Tokyo Paralympics." Eight other sports, including cycling, whose federation applied too late to be considered at the Berlin meeting, and football, "will be reviewed early next year for inclusion." Both these sports "are part of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics sports programme" (REUTERS, 10/7). The PA reported para-cycling could be missing from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games after the UCI "failed to get its paperwork submitted in time." The sport was absent from the list of 16 announced by the IPC on Tuesday, and the UCI "will have to wait until a meeting of the IPC board in January to learn if its late application has been successful." Para-cycling "is among eight sports competing for a maximum of seven remaining places" left on the program for the Games. A statement from the IPC said, "The UCI only submitted its application late last week. As a result there was insufficient time for it to be assessed in time. The IPC management team will now assess the application, identifying any issues they may have with it, before the governing board discuss it at January’s meeting." All sports had until July 28 "to submit their application to the IPC." A maximum of 23 sports "can be included in the Games, although the IPC may opt to include fewer" (PA, 10/7).
