New sports at the Olympics. Five new sports will be added to the Tokyo Olympics

The 2020 Summer Olympics is the most important sporting event of 2020. From July 24 to August 9, athletes from more than 200 countries will compete for awards in football, weightlifting and athletics, volleyball, karate, rhythmic gymnastics, boxing - countless sports in which Olympic participants will compete! Russians will also be among the applicants for the trophies. Along with the Chinese, Americans and British, athletes from Russia are claiming victory in the unofficial medal standings!

A large-scale sports event will be held in the summer of 2020. Athletes from approximately 205 countries will compete for medals from July 24 to August 9.

Japan will be the host country of the Olympics. The competition will take place in the capital of the Land of the Rising Sun, Tokyo. Also, part of the competition will be organized in the prefectures of the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido.

The site for the 2020 Summer Olympics was selected on September 7, 2013. Tokyo's rivals were Madrid, Istanbul, Rome, Baku, Doha and other respected cities. But only Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo qualified for the final vote. In the end, the Japanese capital won by an almost double margin.

This is not Tokyo's first experience of hosting the Olympics. For the first time, the main Japanese city became the center of the Summer Games in 1964.

Sports at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Summer Olympics participants will compete for sets of awards in several dozen sports.

Compared to the last edition of the Olympics, the competitive program of the Tokyo Games has expanded to include surfing, karate, baseball, skateboarding and rock climbing. In addition, a number of sports such as fencing, table tennis and basketball have new disciplines.

Symbols of the 2020 Summer Olympics

The 2020 Summer Olympics emblem is a sphere on a white background, made of dark blue quadrangles of different sizes and shapes. Below the sphere is the inscription “TOKYO 2020”, and below it are the traditional Olympic rings.

According to the creators of the emblem, quadrangular figures of different shapes and sizes symbolize the participating countries, differing from each other in culture, language, mentality, but united into a single whole.

An anime superhero named Miraitova was chosen as the mascot.

This choice should not be surprising. After all, the mascot was chosen by elementary school students.

Miraitowe is paired with another superhero, Someiti. But unlike Miraitova, he is the mascot of the 2020 Paralympics.

Volunteers for the 2020 Summer Olympics

Well, what would a large-scale sports event be without volunteers!? It is expected that about 90,000 volunteers will be involved in servicing the Games! The selection of volunteer assistants will take place in several stages. The first of them will start in mid-September 2018.

To become a volunteer, you must meet the following criteria:

• be at least 18 years of age;
• have a desire to gain volunteer skills;
• speak a minimum set of phrases in popular foreign languages;
• have a free schedule during the Games.

More detailed information can be found on the official website of the 2020 Olympics - www.tokyo2020.org.

Overall medal standings for the 2020 Summer Olympics

China and the USA are vying for victory in the overall medal standings. To a lesser extent, Russia and Great Britain can count on first place.

Four years ago, the Americans became the best in Rio de Janeiro. Representatives of the United States won 121 medals, 46 of which were of the highest value.

The second place went to the natives of Great Britain. China rounded out the top three. Russia showed the 4th result. The gap between our country and China was 7 gold medals.

Most likely, Japanese athletes will show excellent results. They have the strength not only to enter the TOP 5, but also to compete for a place in the top three.

Russia at the 2020 Olympics

The eyes of domestic fans, of course, will be turned to the Russians. It will be difficult for our athletes. Competition in world sports is outrageous. The times when domestic athletes churned out one medal after another are irrevocably gone. In addition, the doping scandal, which has been dragging on for many years, will have a detrimental effect. Many of our athletes were disqualified. Huge damage was done to the image of Russian sports. But Russia will try to recover from the consequences of the machinations of sports officials by the start of the Summer Olympics!

The schedule for the 2020 Olympics was recently officially announced. What disciplines will open the games, and who will become the first champion of the 2020 Olympiad?

Summer Olympics Tokyo 2020

Back in 2013, Japan won the vote to host the 2020 Olympics. Tokyo was ahead by a small margin:

• Istanbud;
• Madrid;
• Buenos Aires.

These games will be the second in history for the capital of Japan. Tokyo hosted its first Olympics back in 1964.

Olympics schedule 2020

2020 Olympic Games start 22nd of June and will pass until August 9 inclusive. The Japanese promise to amaze the whole world with the scale of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics. The 2020 Olympics schedule is as follows:

M - medal standings, K - qualifications, ? - depending on weather conditions. The schedule for the 2020 Olympics has been officially approved by the IOC.

Solemn the opening ceremony The Olympic Games will take place in Tokyo on June 24. Closing of the Olympiad is August 9, 2020.

New sports at the Tokyo Olympics

In 2020, the International Olympic Committee will introduce several new disciplines to the program. You can get acquainted with all of them on our website.

First Olympic champion 2020

First kits olympic gold in Tokyo will be played on June 25 among athletes involved in:

• archery;
• cycling;
• fencing;
• judo;
• shooting;
• taekwondo;
• kettlebell lifting.

It is possible that the first winners will include our compatriots.

Three of the five sports that could join the Olympic program in five years do not bode well for Russian athletes.

The organizing committee of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games proposed to the International Olympic Committee to include several new sports in the competition program: baseball and softball, karate, skateboarding, rock climbing and surfing. The final decision on this issue will be made in Rio de Janeiro at the IOC session in August 2016. "SE" tried to figure out what chances Russian athletes have in these sports.

ROCK CLIMBING. If included in the program of the Tokyo Games, two sets of medals will be played out - men's and women's. It is not yet known which discipline the competition will be held in - bouldering, speed or difficulty. It is possible that the starts will be organized in an all-around format. Of all the five potential Olympic “recruits,” rock climbing is the most promising sport for Russia.

Very little is known about Olympic climbing. Photo by REUTERS

For the last eight years, our team has been the strongest in the world,” says Dmitry Bychkov, president of the Russian Climbing Federation. - In bouldering, Dmitry Sharafutdinov became the world champion three times. We have a whole team of strong athletes in the speed discipline - for example, Stas Kokorin, Alina Gaidamakina, Yulia Kaplina, Masha Krasavina. Our weak point is the “difficulty” discipline. But here too we have very strong athletes. Thus, Dinara Fakhrutdinova became the European champion. All athletes are well prepared and are all-around athletes. If the competition is held in an all-around format, it will be beneficial for us. The most important thing is that a good reserve is growing, and a different generation of Russian climbers will most likely compete at the 2020 Olympics.

SURFING. The President of the Russian Surfing Federation and at the same time one of the strongest surfers in the country, Sergei Rashshivaev, is not too optimistic. When asked what chances Russian athletes have of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, Rashishivaev snapped: practically none. In his opinion, athletes will be selected for the Olympic Games at the annual international competitions ISA World Surfing Games. Russia has been participating in this tournament for the third year, but none of our compatriots have ever been in the top twenty in either the women's or men's individual competitions. The highest achievement of the Russians is 17th place in the team competition. At the same time, not all the strongest surfers on the planet participate in ISA competitions recognized by the IOC. If this sport is included in the Olympic program, competition will intensify.

Surfing is very spectacular, but it requires special climatic conditions. Photo by REUTERS

Our federation exists only at its own expense. We don’t have any sponsors or government funding,” says Sergei. - There is no clear structure for training athletes. All surfers who represent Russia earn money in other areas. This year, only the youth team will go to the ISA World Surfing Games in California; adult athletes refused to participate for financial reasons. This situation is not only here - it is everywhere, except perhaps Australia, the USA and a couple of other countries where surfing is a national sport. Our federation is recognized internationally, but not within the country. But everything will change as soon as surfing is recognized as an Olympic sport.

BASEBALL. This is the only sport proposed by the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee that was previously included in the Olympic program. Baseball was last featured at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. But in 2020, time may turn back, because the interest in this sport in Japan is colossal. The country has a strong baseball team, developed infrastructure, and ready-made stadiums. In total, 6 men's baseball teams and 6 women's softball teams will be able to take part in the Olympics.

It will be problematic for us to get to the Olympics,” says senior coach of the Russian national team Nikolai Gervasov. - From Europe, one team gets to the Games directly, and two more teams participate in further selection. That is, you need to be at least in the top three. Russia came only eighth at the European Championships last year. Theoretically, we can rise to sixth place. It's a similar story with the softball team, but the women's team has a slightly better chance. Now the state is helping us, but this help is not enough. Training camps are held very rarely, it is very difficult to prepare.

KARATE. It is expected that 8 sets of medals will be competed in karate in Tokyo - 4 men's and 4 women's. The first pair is in the kata karate discipline, and three pairs are in three weight categories in the kumite karate discipline. The total number of participants who will be able to take part in the Games in this sport is 80 people. The President of the Russian Karate Federation Sergei Sokolovsky spoke about the chances of Russian karatekas to get into this number.

“I think the IOC will accept the organizers’ proposal regarding karate, because it is the national sport in Japan,” explains Sokolovsky. - In this case, Russia will not only qualify for the Games, but will also qualify for medals. There are world-class stars in Russia - for example, Zhenya Plakhutin, Ivanna Zaitseva. But the Tokyo Olympics will be held in 2020, by which time our youth, who are now competing in juniors and cadets, will also have grown up. At the last youth world championship we had a champion - Kirill Solopov. The youth team takes an average of 6 - 8 medals at all major international competitions. In karate kata we also have one of the best schools in the world. In this discipline, our guys are European champions and prize-winners of the World Youth Championship.

SKATEBOARDING. It has the vaguest prospects among those proposed by the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee. The question of its inclusion in the Olympic Games program was first raised back in 2007. But to this day there is no international skateboarding federation recognized by the IOC. The International Skateboarding Federation and the World Skateboard Federation compete with each other, and perhaps the IOC will simply join skateboarding to one of the existing federations, as happened with snowboarding in its time. The International Roller Sports Federation has already expressed a desire to take skateboarding under its wing.

There is no national skateboarding federation in Russia. Created in 2007, the organization managed to achieve the inclusion of skateboarding in the register of official sports, but was disbanded in 2011. The main reason is the unclear Olympic prospects for skateboarding. The organizer of the Moscow stage of the international World Cup Skateboarding tournament, Alexander Potseluev, spoke about what chances Russian skateboarders have if skateboarding does become part of the Olympic program:

We have two or three skateboarders who skate well and can compete in the street discipline. Of the girls, this is Katya Shengelia. Last year she was even invited to perform at the X-Games in the women's competition. Among the guys are Egor Golubev, Maxim Kruglov, Dima Dvoinishnikov. But the most serious skateboarders are Americans and Brazilians. Last year, Egor Golubev won the World Cap Skateboarding, and he beat the rising star of world skateboarding, Brazilian Kevin Hoefler, in the final. But to be honest, there is America - this is the major league, and there is everyone else. The strongest skateboarders on the planet do not come to the World Cup Skateboarding - they have their own closed pool - Street League Skateboarding. This is a commercial project in which the prize fund is several times larger.

NEW OLYMPIC DISCIPLINES IN TOKYO 2020 (DRAFT)

Five sports were included in the program of the 2020 Olympics, which will be held in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, at the IOC session: baseball/softball, karate, surfing, rock climbing and skateboarding.

The inclusion of these events will add 18 competitions to the next Olympics, with 474 athletes participating.

“The Games in Tokyo can become one of the most unique in the history of the Olympics due to these five new sports,” Tokyo Mayor Yoshiro Mori commented on the IOC decision.

It is interesting that, according to the regulations adopted even earlier, these five events will not be mandatory for subsequent summer Olympics. Each host city of the Games can submit five sports to compete in at its Olympics.

Baseball/softball

Men's baseball and its women's version, softball (or rather, the fast-pitch variant of softball) will not be new to the Olympic program.

Baseball competitions have been held at the Olympics since 1896, while softball was included in the Olympic program in 1996 at the Atlanta Games.

This is hardly surprising, given that the US national teams are the undisputed favorites in these sports.

This is precisely the other side of the coin: in 2005, the next session of the IOC excluded baseball and softball from the list of Olympic sports due to insufficient popularity in the world.

At the Beijing Games, these types of programs were presented as regular members of the Olympic family for the last time, after which they were not in London and will not be in Rio.

It should not be surprising that the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics chose to recommend this particular sport for competition at the 2020 Games - Japan is unconditionally second in the world rankings and is unlikely to miss out on two sets of silver.

There is absolutely nothing for the Russian national teams in this type of program. In fact, it is almost certain that our compatriots will not be represented by either men or women.

Karate

Another traditional Japanese sport. Karate has long been counting on being included in the Olympic program on a permanent basis, but has never been able to achieve this.

The issue of including karate in the program of the London Games in 2012 was seriously considered, but this issue did not pass the vote of the IOC commission.

The main reasons why karate has never been represented at the Olympics are the prohibitively high injury rate and, perhaps more importantly, the presence of too many different self-sufficient federations that are not united under one umbrella.

Nevertheless, the IOC recognized this wrestling as an official Olympic sport in 2015, and has now sanctioned its inclusion in the 2020 Games program.

As for Russian prospects, karate may well bring medals to our team, since it is well developed in the country. Russia has its own world champions, so the ROC should be pleased with the inclusion of this event in the competition program in Tokyo.

Surfing

Surfers around the world have been dreaming of their sport becoming an Olympic sport for a long time. As examples, they cite curling, trampolining and even fencing and rowing - sports that are much less popular and widespread, but are firmly entrenched in the Olympic family.

Discussions about the possible inclusion of surfing in the Olympic program on a permanent basis have been going on for a long time, and at the 2024 Games the appearance of this sport on a permanent basis is quite possible. Well, in Tokyo there will be a kind of “test of the pen”.

It will not be easy for Russian athletes to count on medals here. However, there is still time until 2020. Perhaps surf stars will also appear in our country, since in Russia this sport is becoming more popular every year.

Rock climbing

Sport climbing has long been trying to become an Olympic sport. Back in 1995, the IOC officially recognized the international federation UIAA, which at that time governed this sport.

In 2002, the UIAA made a dossier to include rock climbing in the program of the Turin Olympics - then this sport was perceived more as a winter sport.

This did not happen, but in 2007 the International Federation of Sports Climbing appeared, uniting 68 countries of the world under its auspices.

The popularity of this sport is also growing, and in many countries rock climbing is already included in the school curriculum.

Skateboarding

The situation with skateboarding is somewhat different. Yes, this sport is gaining popularity in the world even faster than rock climbing and windsurfing, and the competition in Tokyo promises to be exciting.

It’s just that the Russian team doesn’t have much to count on in this type of program yet. If the situation does not change in four years (which is unlikely to happen), then the Russian team will be strangers at this celebration of life.

You can get acquainted with other news, materials and statistics at Rio 2016, as well as in the sports department groups on social networks