Tokyo Begins Planning for New Sports

(ATR) Tokyo 2020 has started examining venue plans to stage the five sports the organizing committee proposed for inclusion in the Olympics.

A meeting of the Olympic organizer’s additional events panel met in the Japanese capital on Monday to discuss Tokyo’s next steps in the process.

Tokyo 2020 selected baseball/softball, karate, skateboard, sports climbing and surfing in September to represent "both traditional and emerging, youth-focused events." The 18 events will result in the addition of around 475 athletes to the Tokyo 2020 sports program.

A task force comprised of officials from Tokyo 2020, Japanese Metropolitan governments, the Japanese Olympic Committee and Japan Sports Association will begin exploring the sports’ proposals and hold talks with the relevant international federations.

Briefing media about the meeting, Fujio Mitarai, chair of Tokyo 2020's additional event program panel, said today: "We are going to appeal to the youth in the world."

After the meeting, Tokyo 2020 chief operating officer Yukihiko Nunomura said Games organizers were starting to explore venues to accommodate the new sports’, despite not knowing if the IOC will reject any of them when a final decision is made at the Session in Rio de Janeiro next summer.

"We are going to consider venues before the IOC’s determination but to decide concretely after the IOC’s decision," he said.

"Tokyo 2020, the IOC and IF will select the venue. But the final decision is with the IOC."

Among the criteria for choosing venues are athletes’ needs, IF requirements and how the proposed new sport might fit into the sports programming.

Reported by Hironori Hashimoto, Kazuya Yoko and Mark Bisson in Tokyo.

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