AP Photo/Jay C. Hong, Mark Blench/COC
The first modern Olympic Games in 1896 featured nine sports, which included 43 different events in which 241 athletes (all men) competed. In contrast, the Paris 2024 Games will feature 32 sports with 329 events and a total of 10,500 athletes competing (and gender parity between women and men!).
It is clear that a lot regarding the Olympic program has changed over the course of the century as well as the development of the sport. There are sports, disciplines and events that everyone associates with the Olympics, such as the marathon, due to their history and connection to the Olympic legacy. But at Tokyo 2020, sports such as surfing, skiing and sport climbing were introduced to the Olympic program in an attempt to balance history, tradition, innovation and youth. At the 2024 Paris Games, break sport will make its debut as an Olympic sport.
So, how are new sports added to the Olympic program?
Before we answer that, let’s take a step back for a moment and clarify a few things.
In the Olympic world, the sport is governed by a single international federation. So aquatics, governed by World Aquatics, is one sport. But within that there are disciplines that most people usually refer to as sports – swimming, diving, water polo, and artistic swimming. The same can be seen on the winter side. Everything that falls under the jurisdiction of FIS, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, is considered a single sport. But this includes six different Olympic disciplines – alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, combined nordic skiing, and ski jumping.
In 2014, the International Olympic Committee created Olympic Agenda 2020 in an effort to protect Olympic values and enhance the role of sport in an ever-changing world. One development resulting from this was that the OCOGs (organizing committees of the Olympic Games) would have the ability to propose new sports for their version of the Games. The goal was to prioritize youth participation, gender balance, and innovation.
The Tokyo 2020 Games were the first OCOG able to capitalize on this development, resulting in baseball/softball returning to the Olympic program, and karate, skiing, surfing and sport climbing making their Olympic debuts. OCOGs submit their proposals four to six years before the Games are scheduled to take place. While OCOGs have the ability to suggest additional sports, they do not have the ability to remove sports from games.
Only sports that adopt and implement the World Anti-Doping Code and have an international federation can be included in the Olympic programme. The proposed program is reviewed by the Olympic Program Committee of the International Olympic Committee, which Responsibilities are lake:
- Develop a sports program that increases the popularity of the games while moderating the cost and complexity of hosting;
- Ensure that the Olympic program is suitable for young people while also respecting tradition and history;
- Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the proposed sports and their international federations;
- Respect the principles of the Olympic Agenda.
Sports are evaluated based on… 35 criteria across five categories:
- Olympic proposal
- The format of the competition, the number of athletes, officials and venues
- Added value to the Olympic movement
- Inheritance, youth interest
- Institutional matters
- Compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency, the establishment of the International Federation, and the number of world championships held
- popularity
- Ticket sales, media interest in past world championships, and investment by the host country’s population
- Business model
- The potential costs target additional revenue for the Olympic Games
Once this review is complete, the next step is for the IOC Executive Board to support the proposal and then submit it to the IOC Plenum for a final vote. In terms of timelines, Tokyo 2020 submitted its proposal in September 2015 and received approval from the IOC session in August 2016.
But just because a sport is added, it doesn’t mean it always has a place in the Games. For example, softball/baseball and karate were included in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but were not proposed for inclusion in the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Athletics Organizing Committee decided that it wanted to bring back skiing, climbing and surfing and additionally proposed adding break sports. The proposed inclusions and exclusions depend largely on the popularity of the sport and its importance to the host country.
Other sports that you are used to watching game after game are considered “core sports” and therefore not usually on the table. You’re unlikely to see an Olympics without swimming, athletics or gymnastics, for example, all of which were original sports contested in 1896 Athens.
What could change is the event program within those core sports. This is how Paris 2024 will achieve gender equality. Over the past decade or so, the summer and winter Olympic event programs have been gradually adjusted to ensure balance in men’s and women’s events.
For example, at Rio 2016, the canoe/kayak race had eight men’s events and only four women’s events, while the canoe/kayak slalom race had three men’s events and one women’s event. At Tokyo 2020, competition was equalized between six sprint events and two slalom events for each gender, and women were finally allowed to compete in rowing. A further development for the Paris 2024 Games is that the sprint program has been reduced to five events per gender to allow for the addition of an exciting kayak event to the men’s and women’s slalom programme.
is reading: Then and now: Paris 1924 vs. Paris 2024
This is how sports are added to the Olympic Games! What sport do you think should be suggested next?
