Climbing officially approved for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
A leap forward in the history of our sport - climbing has been officially added to the sport programme for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo as announced by IOC yesterday.
Along with baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding and surfing, the five new sports have been approved in demand and desire to attract a wider youth audience and respond to the rising trend of urbanization of sport.
“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 the IOC President Thomas Bach on the official press release.
Initially rejected in a decision from 2013, climbing got a second chance after it was resolved that the host country will have the opportunity to propose and elect sports of local and international importance. Since the bid of 26 new sports in Sept 2015, climbing made it through the “seedings” and was officially accepted and supported yesterday (Aug 3rd) by the Committee.
Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said, “The inclusion of the package of new sports will afford young athletes the chance of a lifetime to realize their dreams of competing in the Olympic Games – the world’s greatest sporting stage – and inspire them to achieve their best, both in sport and in life.”