(ATR) The IOC Executive Board officially approved the Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games sport and event program on the first day of its meeting in Lausanne on Tuesday.
Full gender equality, in terms of not only the number of male and female athletes, but also representation in each sport and event will be achieved for the first time in Olympic history.
The five new sports approved for the Dakar YOG program are skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing, and breaking, all four of which are also on the Paris 2024 program. The fifth new sport is karate, which is in the Tokyo 2020 program but not Paris 2024. These join the initial 28 sports already on the program.
IOC sport director Kit McConnell commented of the monumental decisions taken and the first Games ever held in Africa: "It is a hugely historic event not only for Senegal, not only for Africa, but for the greater Olympic Movement."
To ease the burden on the Dakar organizers, keep costs down and for efficiency in terms of housing, the IOC will implement a two-wave system of athletes attending the Games. The teen-aged athletes will arrive in two stages, with the first group attending the opening ceremony and the second participating in the closing ceremony.
McConnell says there will be no more than 2,650 present at any given time, allowing for an athlete participation of 4,564 compared to 4,000 at Buenos Aires 2018. Like the last edition of the Summer YOG in South America, there will be 239 medal events.
Existing venues and the local geography have been taken into account when deciding which disciplines will be contested within each sport. For example, there will be a coastal program for canoe and rowing and beach wrestling will replace Greco-Roman wrestling. There will be a temporary venue for hockey.
McConnell says the YOG will once again serve as a training ground providing invaluable experience for athletes aged 14-18 also striving to compete in the Olympic Games.
"It is a good possibility that the athletes in Dakar will also be pushing for qualification and participation in Paris 2024."
Homepage photo: IOC
Written and reported by Brian Pinelli in Lausanne
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