IOC Launches New Sports Process for Paris 2024

(ATR) The IOC has introduced a two-phase procedure for Paris 2024 to put forward new sports.

In a different approach to the one taken for Tokyo 2020, any new sports proposed by Paris 2024 will be considered within the Olympic Charter stipulation of 10,500 athletes and 310 events.

The five new Tokyo 2020 sports – baseball-softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing – will add 474 new events and take participants over that cap.

Paris 2024 has been asked to make proposals for new sports in the first half of 2019. Discussions are already taking place with IOC-recognized international federations whose sport has been assessed as fitting within the existing Paris 2024 venue master plan and vision to host a youthful Games.

The sports proposed by Paris 2024 will then be presented for approval at the IOC Session in Milan in 2019. No new sports can be added after this meeting.

If approved, these sports will be considered for inclusion in the 2024 Games – but only after a thorough review of the five new sports on the Tokyo 2020 program, which would happen in the autumn that year.

The final event program and athlete quotas for any new sports for Paris 2024 will be finalized by the IOC executive board in December 2020. Also to be decided at the meeting will be the events and athlete quotas for the 28 existing core sports on the Olympic program.

"There are clearly some benefits on having some early clarity on the addition of new sports such as venue planning and operations [for Paris 2024]," IOC sports director Kit McConnell told a press briefing in Lausanne.

"Equally we understand for national federations, NOCs, the earlier the decisions the better and particularly for athletes to have some certainty."

The new process raises the prospect of a new sport, possibly from the five for Tokyo 2020, being proposed by Paris 2024 and endorsed by the IOC Session only to be rejected 15 months later in December 2020.

Asked by Around the Rings if this scenario might be a kick in the teeth for federations and athletes, McConnell confirmed that any new sport recommended by the 2019 Session was "subject to a review".

"You’re absolutely right. There’s a degree of final confirmation between the Session in 2019 and the executive board in December 2020," he said.

Some of Tokyo’s new sports such as skateboarding and surfing may be considered by Paris 2024. Squash is one sport vying for inclusion in the Games.

McConnell said the new process would allow the IOC the ability to gauge the impact and global popularity of Tokyo’s five new sports.

Squash Ready to Bid

The World Squash Federation used the IOC’s announcement on the new sports selection procedure for the Paris Games to trumpet its readiness to bid and "to demonstrate why the sport will be a great strategic choice for inclusion in the Olympic program".

WSF president Jacques Fontaine said: "The whole sport is truly united in our desire to participate in the selection process and to show the strong attributes that squash can bring to the IOC and to Paris 2024 in the context of the on-going New Norm and Agenda 2020 reforms.

"Squash has a vibrant and real forward-looking vision rooted in constant innovation, striving for more inclusiveness and sustainability across all our activities on and outside of the court."

He added: "We truly believe that we can seamlessly integrate the Olympic program with a minimal investment and an optimized gender-equal pool of participants, while bringing a lot of additional excitement and spectacular action to the very heart of the host cities."

Squash is one of the showcase sports at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympics in October.

Written and Reported by Mark Bissonin Lausanne

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