IOC announces event programme for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

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Story Headline: IOC announces event programme for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Location: Lausanne, Switzerland

Date: 9th June 2017

The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced the event programme for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The Games will host several new youth and urban-style events.

There will also be more female athletes competing than ever before in Olympic history.

IOC President Thomas Bach said: “The fascinating new events that we approved today, together with the five new sports that were added to the Tokyo 2020 programme last year, represent a step-change in the Olympic Programme. I am delighted that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will be more youthful, more urban and will include more women”.

The programme will include youth-focused and urban-based disciplines like Basketball 3×3, BMX Freestyle, Sport Climbing and Skateboarding. Basketball 3×3 was a successful innovation at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore 2010 and Nanjing 2014. Sport Climbing and Skateboarding were proposed along with Baseball/Softball, Karate, and Surfing by Tokyo 2020 last year.

The next Summer Youth Olympic Games, which will take place in Buenos Aires in October 2018, will feature Karate and Sport Climbing as well as several innovative new urban sports such as Breakdance and Roller Sports.

The Tokyo Games will also have the highest number and percentage of female athletes in Olympic history. The number of mixed events will double from Rio 2016’s nine to 18.

Four disciplines – Canoeing, Rowing, Shooting and Weightlifting – will be gender-balanced for the first time. In terms of athletes, six IFs will move to gender balance for the first time (Canoeing, Judo, Rowing, Sailing, Shooting and Weightlifting). At discipline level, gender balance will be achieved in BMX Cycling, Mountain Bike and Freestyle Wrestling.

It marks a significant step towards achieving the desired 50 per cent gender balance at the Olympic Games in both athletes and events, as clearly stated by Olympic Agenda 2020.

Overall there will be a net increase of 15 events, but an overall reduction of 285 athletes from Rio 2016, thereby reducing the Games’ environmental footprint.