Tug of war, football among 26 sports applying for Tokyo 2020 Olympics – NBCSports.com

Tug of war wants to return to the Olympics for the first time in 100 years, while football hopes to debut in the Olympics in 2020.

A total of 26 sports applied for inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, organizers said Friday.

Finalist sports are scheduled to be announced June 22 and will make presentations in Tokyo in early August. Tokyo 2020 organizers are expected to recommend which sports to add, if any at all, by Sept. 30, with the IOC making a final decision in August 2016.

Olympic host cities can propose adding sports for their Games under Agenda 2020 reforms passed by the International Olympic Committee in December.

Baseball and softball, part of the Olympics from 1996 through 2008, are a joint bid and thought to be the favorite to be added for Tokyo 2020, if any sports are added. More on baseball-softball here.

Tug of war was last in the Olympics in 1920. The International Federation of American Football was provisionally recognized by the IOC in December 2013, the first of many steps toward possible Olympic inclusion. Neither tug of war nor football is thought to be favored to be added for the 2020 Olympics.

Here are sports that applied to join the 2020 Olympics, via The Associated Press:

Air sports, baseball-softball, bowls, bowling, bridge, chess, dance sport, floorball, flying disc, football, karate, korfball, netball, orienteering, polo, racquetball, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, sumo, surfing, tug of war, underwater sports, waterski and wakeboard, and wushu.

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