A host of new events have been proposed by international federations to make their Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Inside the Games reported a total of 25 extra events across 15 sports have been put forward to the IOC along with a number more that will directly replace existing events.
Among the sports set to introduce new events to their Olympic programmes are archery, aquatics, basketball, boxing, judo, modern pentathlon, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon and weightlifting.
Canoeing, rowing and shooting are aiming to replace existing events with others that will foster greater gender equality amongst their sport.
The International Swimming Federation (FINA) have proposed the most changes including the addition of high diving and mixed duet synchronized swimming, while increasing the water polo competitions from eight teams to twelve.
FINA have also proposed to add the men’s 800m freestyle, women’s 1500m freestyle, and include a mixed 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay.
Basketball would introduce a 3-on-3 competition, archery a mixed team event, while for triathlon and modern pentathlon mixed team relay events could be on the cards.
Among canoeing’s changes would be replacing the men’s C2 slalom with the women’s C1 event. This would be great news for dual K1 Olympic medallist Jess Fox who at the age of 23 has already won the world C1 title three times.
Athletics are yet to submit their proposals while others are yet to confirm if they’re proposing changes. Badminton, equestrian, handball, hockey, sailing, tennis, volleyball and wrestling have all outlined plans not to change their programmes.
The IOC Olympic Programme Commission will now look into the merits of these changes and make a decision at the Executive Board meeting scheduled for July in Lausanne.
The following events have been proposed:
Archery – Two-person mixed team event
Basketball – 3 on 3 competition with two 16 team competitions
Boxing – Two new female weight categories
Canoe Slalom– Women’s C1 slalom to replace men’s C2 slalom
Canoe Sprint – Women’s C1 200m and C2 500m to replace men’s C1 200m and K2 200m. Men’s K4 500m to replace men’s K4 100m.
Cycling (Unconfirmed) – BMX freestyle, men’s and women’s Madison
Diving – high diving (men dive from 27m and women from 23m)
Judo – Mixed team competition
Modern Pentathlon – Mixed team event
Shooting – 10m air rifle, 10m air pistol and trap mixed team events would replace individual men’s 50m rifle prone, 50m pistol and the double trap events
Swimming – Women’s 1500m, men’s 800m, 4x100m freestyle mixed relay, 4x100m medley mixed relay
Table Tennis – Men’s and women’s doubles, as well as mixed doubles, to be added
Taekwondo – Mixed team event
Triathlon – Mixed team event
Weightlifting – Extra women’s weight category
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