Baseball, softball on track to return to Olympics in 2020 – Sporting News

Baseball and softball are on schedule to make their return to the Olympics in 2020 after a 12-year absence.

The International Olympic Committee’s executive board recommended Wednesday that the sports be added to the Tokyo 2020 program along with surfing, skateboarding, karate and sports climbing. The full IOC membership must approve the recommendation at its August meeting in Rio for the additions to become official.

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Baseball and softball are considered one sport by the IOC, with separate men’s and women’s tournaments featuring six teams each. Tokyo’s organizing committee requested last fall that the sports be included for its Games after missing out on the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics. Both are popular in Japan, with baseball as a well-established spectator sport and the country upsetting the United States for gold in softball in 2008.

Baseball was an official medal sport from 1992-2008, with Cuba winning gold three times and taking silver in the other two Games. The U.S. managed only one gold medal, winning in 2000 in Sydney, while South Korea took gold most recently in Beijing.

One of the reasons then-IOC president Jacques Rogge gave for dropping baseball after 2008 was the lack of participation by elite players, most of whom are in the midst of the Major League Baseball season during the Olympics. That doesn’t figure to change in 2020, with the Games running from July 24-August 9, so rosters will likely be composed mostly of minor leaguers again.

Softball was dinged for lack of “universality,” with the U.S., Australia and Japan winning 11 of the 12 medals awarded in the sport from 1996-2008.

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Among the other additions, karate is a natural fit for Japan with its strong martial arts culture, and skateboarding, surfing and sports climbing reflect the IOC’s recent move toward action sports. That initiative, designed to engage younger audiences, has been more prevalent in the Winter Olympics, but BMX racing was added to the Summer Games in 2008.

“They represent a combination of well-established and emerging sports with significant popularity in Japan and beyond,” the IOC said in a release. “They include team sports and individual sports; indoor sports and outdoor sports; and ‘urban’ sports with a strong appeal to youth.”

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With the approval of the new sports, 18 events and 474 athletes would be added to the Tokyo 2020 program.