5 new sports - Tokyo 2020

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

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Baseball/Softball, Karate, Skateboarding, Climbing and Surfing.

Surfing will be cool to watch I should think. So will Karate.

Climbing should be fascinating. I listened to a british climbing athlete being interviewed on 5 live yesterday. He's preparing to climb in Tokyo. He said there's several climbing events. Who can go highest till they basically fall off. Who can get to a height the fastest. And one or two others I can't remember.

Skateboarding.. meh.

Baseball.. not really for me, but depends if you're into cricket type games. Of course, the yanks will rule at this.

https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-approves-five-new-sports-for-olympic-games-tokyo-2020
 
Baseball and softball keeps coming and going. It'll be popular in Japan, though.

I'm sure I've seen some climbing events on TV, though must have been 10+ years ago. Should be good.

I quite like skateboarding too. Surfing always struck me as being a bit crap as a spectator sport, but hopefully the coverage will do it justice.

I've no idea what competitive karate looks like. Hopefully a bit more entertaining than the taekwondo (which is tense, but not exactly spectacular)
 
Surfing as a spectator sport, you get to sit on a beach, watch an awesome view that just happens to have some surfers screwing around in the water. Plus you know, chicks in bikinis. Better and more impressive than beach volleyball largely because you aren't stuck in an arena but can actually watch the ocean/view all day long.

There are worse ways to spend a day than on a beach. Baseball is fine, it's a tad slow, I think the english expect football, you start a game and focus on it solely which is boring. Baseball is more of a social sport. You get often cheap seats and hang out for hours, you talk with friends, drink, laugh and in between you watch the game.

Karate, I like to think it's like the long jump except the increasing number is thickness of a wooden board or stack of cement blocks. You keep breaking increasingly thick things with a kick or chop and the person who wins breaks his hand/foot last.

Really any sport in which people compete competitively at a high level and has a lot of interest should really be in the olympics.

Personally I'd say things like skateboarding, surfing, baseball/softball are far more applicable today than really all of the horse riding junk. Dressage, really? Hey, look, I can stay on this horse who does all the work, how freaking amazing. I find horse riding about as impressive as getting your dog to run an obstacle course... as in not impressive except for the animal in question itself.
 
Will be interested to see how adding these sports pans out. Baseball is a bit of an odd one since like golf the Olympics will arguably never be the pinnacle of the sport and there is a big professional element to it. It's a bit of a niche sport though since I'd expect USA, Japan and Cuba to be fighting it out for the medals while most of the rest of the world wonders if they've got enough players of a high enough standard to enter a team. Also scheduling could be a nightmare since my understanding is that games take as long as they take.

Of the five I think I'll be most interested in the climbing but will probably try to watch all of them, if for no other reason than to see what they are like in an Olympic format.
 
Baseball / softball - can see why they've brought this back but it's rather slow to watch.

Surfing - not really a spectator sport is it? But then again, nor is outdoor swimming.

Climbing should be very interesting, especially in the format they've proposed with speed runs and height challenges.

Karate belongs in the Olympics but will struggle from the same problems as Judo - it's hard for the viewer with limited knowledge of the sport to know what's going on.

Skateboarding - should be fun to watch, but still not convinced it's really an Olympic sport.

Of all of these, Climbing looks the most interesting.
 
Not sure that spectator friendliness is much of a barrier.

Indoor shooting is pretty dull, 60 shots at a microscopic target and I don't believe anyone even appreciates the crowd getting excited as they try to concentrate.
 
Cern said:
Karate belongs in the Olympics but will struggle from the same problems as Judo - it's hard for the viewer with limited knowledge of the sport to know what's going on.
Click to expand...

I was googling and came across...

Karate is practised differently in many countries. There is no universal form anymore. For example, how the Japanese use the Karate could be very different from how it is practised in the States. Countries such as Korea, Soviet union, the US and Britian have their own version of the art of Karate.
In fact, Taekwondo was derived from Karate by the Koreans. And there are the use of weapons such as knifes involved. As such, Karate is deemed as a dangerous sport. The World Union of Karate-do Organizations (WUKO) offers different styles and federations a world body they may join, without having to compromise their style or size. The WUKO accepts more than one federation or association per country.
Karate does not have 2012 Olympic status. In the 117th IOC Session (July 2005), karate received more than half of the votes, but not the two-thirds majority needed to become an official Olympic sport.
Click to expand...
 
It will be interesting to see if there is a competitive advantage to a particular style of Karate, and it may not just be down to "skill" of the individual combatant, but again Im not sure if it will be that entertaining to watch (and to be fair Im not that sure on surfing either, is Japan really known for decent surf?)

Skateboarding.......really? I suppose Im just showing my age as that was my reaction to BMX also and thats been included for at least two or three Olympics now.

Climbing is a really interesting one, and while I can see why some might not like it being included Im actually glad it is (even though Im not a fan personally).

Personally think Baseball , Golf, Tennis and Football are way too commercialised at this point to have any place in the Olympics but its been going that way for a while (at least football has a few age restrictions, which makes it a little better) - so it was only a matter of time before Baseball joined.
 
Unless Karate sparring has vastly improved since I last watched it years ago, it will be dull as dishwasher! Competitors bounce around like would up springs, then lunge with a punch to the solar plexus to win a point.
 
Merlin5 said:
Baseball.. not really for me, but depends if you're into cricket type games. Of course, the yanks will rule at this.

https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-approves-five-new-sports-for-olympic-games-tokyo-2020
Click to expand...

You might want to tap the brakes a bit on that one.

First, the summer Olympics are held during the Baseball season here, so it's unlikely that any pro players will be involved.

Second, most of S. America plays baseball and are very, very good. (See the number of latin american players in the pros.) Cuba has an exceptional national team.

While I do think we can put together a very talented team from the college ranks, I'm not sure they'll be able to compete at the highest level.
 
karate tends to just turn into a naff semi-contact version of kickboxing if done competitively as a sport - the 'art' side of it goes out of the window a bit as punching/kicking when trying to be efficient/competitive doesn't usually look anywhere near as graceful as say a well rehearsed kata

might as well just make 'kickboxing' an Olympic sport... then it is essentially open to anyone from a kickboxing, karate, TKD etc.. background

better still bring in MMA
 
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