The 2020 Summer Olympics are coming. The 2020 summer games will make a return to Tokyo, Japan for the first time since 1964. While there are many mainstays returning once again to the Olympics, following is a list of all the sports that are either brand new, have been altered, or are coming back to the Olympics: archery, baseball, softball, basketball, boxing, canoeing, kayaking, cycling, fencing, judo, karate, rowing, shooting, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, track and field, water polo.
While most of these sports have been in the Olympics at some point or another with slight modifications, there are also some completely new sports for fans to look forward to.
The brand new sports this year are sport climbing, karate, skateboarding and surfing. Sport climbing, which is essentially indoor rock climbing, will have three events: speed climbing, lead climbing, and bouldering events. The speed climbing event involves two competitors racing to the top of a fifteen-meter high wall using a given route. The bouldering event will challenge competitors technical abilities, while lead climbing will ask the athletes to climb as high as they can on a fifteen-meter wall in six minutes.
In the surfing competition, twenty surfers will be entered in each heat. Four athletes will compete at a time in heats. The surfers will be judged by a panel and then awarded a score based off of their riding abilities.
Karate will be broken into three different weight classes and feature Kata, which is about form and presentation and Kumite, which is sparring.
Lastly, skateboarding, which has gained public attention with the popularity of events like the X Games and Street League, will have two events, park and street, for both men and women. Park is a style that is typically done in emptied out swimming pools, and street refers to a style which utilizes rails, stair sets, and ledges to test skateboarders’ technical abilities.
Given that the Olympics are just over a year away, there is a possibility that slight modifications could be made before 2020. However, as things stand, there is a lot to look forward to.