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Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
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Japan's Taiki Karube competes in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games test event at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach in Chiba. Photo: AFP

2020 Olympics one-year countdown: a guide to the new Tokyo Games events – sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing debut to appeal to youth

  • Karate is among the new events, with eight gold medals on offer in Japan
  • Baseball and softball return for the first time since Beijing 2008

When the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony takes place on July 24, 2020, the start of the 32nd Summer Games will also be the beginning of Olympic history for four new sports, the return of two forms of ball games and the addition of another basketball format.

Tokyo will see the debut of sport climbing, surfing, skateboarding, and karate, while baseball/softball return – all five changes having been lobbied for by the Tokyo Organising Committee and approved by the International Olympic Committee.

Basketball will also offer a three-on-three format alongside the full sport for the first time.

Sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding are being included to appeal to a younger audience – while Paris 2024 may go even further with breakdancing up for inclusion – whereas karate and baseball are hugely popular in Japan.

The 2024 organising committee also proposed that surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing remain on the programme for the Paris Games. This suggests the sports are here to stay, but what can you expect in these new Olympic sports?

Here is your guide to the sports that will get to live their Olympic dream in 12 months.

Japan’s Shohei Ohtani in action for the Los Angeles Angels against the Houston Astros. Photo: AP

Baseball/Softball

Considered as one sport, the men will compete in the baseball competition, while the women will play softball at Tokyo. Both regain Olympic status for the first time since Beijing 2008 after missing out at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Both forms of the sport are huge in Japan and the hosts will be backed in full voice when they take the field, but the US are likely to be heavy favourites for gold.

They won the last International Baseball Classic in 2017 and the US women won the World Softball Championships in Japan last summer, beating the hosts in the final.

A panoramic view of the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo, the venue for 2020 Olympic karate events. Photo: Kyodo

Karate

There will be eight medal events on offer in this indigenous Japanese martial art, which is estimated to be practised by somewhere between 50-100 million people globally.

Only 80 will be on the mat in Tokyo, with 10 athletes in each event.

Kumite, the sparring form of karate, will feature six weight classes – three for men and three for women – with another two golds on offer in the kata, the solo event.

Gao Qunxiang of China competes during the men’s open qualifier heats at the 2019 International Skateboarding Open in Nanjing. Photo: Xinhua

Skateboarding

While not everyone thinks it is totally radical that the famously counterculture sport has got Olympic status, many others contest that IOC legitimacy means a more secure future for the sport.

There will be park and street events in Tokyo and medals for men and women in both. Some 80 skaters will roll into the sport’s first appearance. Most of the qualifying spots come from the world rankings and each country is limited to three spots in each event.

The street discipline will feature rails, stairs, curbs and benches for skaters to use in their tricks to get their best routine. The park will see skaters performing tricks in mid-air and on the lips of the bowls of the skatepark.

Surfing

A total of 20 men and 20 women will take to the ocean at Shidashita Beach in Chiba prefecture, just 45 minutes outside the capital.

All will compete in the shortboard over two days of competition, with officials deciding the start when the surf is guaranteed.

Heats will see four surfers compete at once, with the top two, as scored by the judges, going through to the next round. The biggest names in the sport are expected to be among those taking to their boards.

Sport Climbing

Another sport where only 40 people – 20 men and 20 women – will be in line for the first ever medals. The combined format for the sport climbing means that athletes will have to excel across all three disciplines of the sport – lead climbing, speed climbing and bouldering – to win. Competition will last one day.

Lead climbing in the Olympics will see athletes free climb up a set route and winners determined by the point on the course reached at the end of six minutes. While they have ropes, they cannot use them to aid progress on the course.

Speed climbing is a race to the top of a 15m wall, with two climbers competing on identical routes. The fastest is declared the winner, usually inside eight seconds. Bouldering is done without ropes or harnesses and puts a climber’s mind and physical capabilities to the sternest test as they try to scale as many routes as they can on a four-metre wall in four minutes.

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