With the 2020 Olympics gearing up for Tokyo, Japan, applications are coming in for new events and sports to be added to the games. So far boosters of up to 26 events are applying for inclusion, including tug-of- war and football.
In the case of one such applicant, tug of war, aficionados hope 2020 will mark the return of an event that hasn’t been seen in the Olympics since 1920.
In the case of others, such as football, supporters hope to see their sport added to the international games as fully official for the first time.
Some are working together, too. Baseball and softball are presenting as a team to regain their position lost in 2008.
“Baseball and softball at the Tokyo 2020 Games can help spread Olympic values with the entire nation of Japan and those around the world,” Riccardo Fraccari, president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, told the media this week.
The final group from which Olympics officials will chose will be announced on June 22 and representatives of those chosen will present their case to the committee in August. The committee will then make its final choices by September. It should be noted that the IOC is under no obligation to add any new events at all to the games.
According to the Associated Press, the full list of applicants are as follows:
Air sports, baseball-softball, bowls, bowling, bridge, chess, dance sport, floorball, flying disc, football, karate, korfball, netball, orienteering, polo, racquetball, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, sumo, surfing, tug of war, underwater sports, waterski and wakeboard, and wushu.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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