Paris 2024 organizers have put forth its proposal to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for four sports to be included in that year’s Summer Olympic Games programming. Breakdancing, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing have all been included in the proposal, which will be reviewed by the Olympic Program Commission. In March, the Commission will then make a recommendation and present to the IOC Executive Board.
Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing will all three be making their debuts as Olympic events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Therefore, breakdancing is the entirely new entrant on the potential Olympic inclusion scene. But the sport was a part of the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires last year.
The proposition by Paris 2024 organizers is a nod towards the Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC‘s vision for overall Olympic programming that was revealed back in 2014.
One key point of that agenda was the guideline to shift the Games from a sport-focused competition to more of an event-focused enterprise. The IOC envisions more of a blending of sport and culture at the Olympic Games, while also encouraging more mixed-gender team-based events. Breakdancing, or ‘breaking’ as it would be called in the Olympic program, offers men’s, women’s and mixed team events.
The final events program and athlete quotas for Paris 2024 won’t be revealed until well after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games’ conclusion.
Petanque aficionados are very very very disappointed.
So now will FINA try & “take control” of / claim “dominion over” surfing since it’s a water sport? God help us…
Can we add tug of war back?
They want to put Break Dancing in, but we can’t get the stroke 50s?
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I assume that’s Michael Andrew flipping the table?
We don’t need those, what we need to do is market the athletes better, the reason swimming hasn’t grown like we want is the same reason baseball is failing. And I love baseball. Nobody knows who the stars are! The mixed relays need to go far far away as well, all these added events take away from the medals won by previous generations. Women’s 1500 and men’s 800 is enough. Now a event worth adding would be a aquatic steeplechase type deal, something like a 100m swim, climb a rock wall, climb rope down, swim 25m underwater, buddy tow a 180lb dummy 25m, find the last infinity stones….that’s what’s get the people going
I know that last part was intended as sarcasm, but now I really want to see that!
It’d be easier to market the athletes if the events were shorter. The most popular event in track and field lasts under 10-seconds yet we’re expecting semi-interested fans to care about the 1500. It’s not rocket science.