Rejuvenation Process of Olympia 2020
The Olympic Summer Games have just been in progress in Rio. Yet, one is already busy on planning the Olympic Games in Rio in 2020. Skateboarders and surfers can rejoice: They can finally perform their art on the board in Tokyo in a few years.
The IOC Session (International Olympic Committee) strived for a makeover for the Olympics for quite some time. Now five new sports were added to the program for Tokyo 2020. In addition to skateboarding and surfing baseball/softball, karate and sport climbing found a place in the international competition. "I consider this as a milestone on the innovation path in the history of the Olympic Games," claimed IOC president Thomas Bach after the vote. Moreover, Bach himself was the one who has coined the Olympic Agenda 2020. The reform scripture provides that each future host could propose new Olympics sports. A prerequisite for the adoption of the new sports would be that they appear attractive in the respective country and popular for young athletes.
Therefore, it now happened in Tokyo that the number of sports rose from 28 to 32. In total 474 new athletes will be vying for the coveted medals. For skateboarding 80 young athletes will be admitted, for surfing there will be 40 artists.
The message of becoming olympic is perceived differently in the skateboard and surf scene. Some say that skateboarding and surfing indeed are not real sports, but rather something, that is fun and that somehow represents art. Others say that for the people in the scene participating im competitions, it certainly would be very cool now to finally be able to officially compete on the world stage Olympic Games. Basically a big deal for skating and surfing.
Now you can draw conclusions in terms of where the sports will develop to in the future. Concerning the freeskiing scene that is not that long part of the Olympic program it is realized that the inclusion to Olympia was not that helpful. Although the financial support of the freeski associations has been beneficial for one or the other, the big hype or the presence of the sport stayed away. Many sponsors even stepped out of the parking industry. "No matter, anyway, it was fun", yet many athletes claim retrospectively.
We are looking forward to the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, and we are happy for the skateboarders and the surfers. The program then will become younger, more energetic and geared to Bach`s agenda also entirely event-based according to the zeitgeist.
