Regardless of the fact that the IOC has three more Olympics to worry about this decade, the 2020 Olympics seem to be shaping up rather nicely.
Leaders from seven sports were in Lausanne, Switzerland this week to officially make their case for inclusion at a yet to be determined location as part of the 2020 Games.
But, unfortunately, there’s only one available spot in Tokyo, or Istanbul… or possibly Madrid. Here’s a look at each sport’s chances:
Squash: Surprisingly high. A possible frontrunner after the WSF made a concerted effort to popularize the sport, make it more modern, audience friendly, and fun. The glass-encased courts make for an incredible spectator experience, and you can put a camera anywhere, but it might lose out because of how many racquet sports are already in the Games.
Baseball/softball: High-ish. Both were taken off the Olympic schedule after Beijing, and both have failed to gain re-admittance for Rio, so we’re not sure joining forces suddenly makes this bid an automatic home run (pun totally intended). But they’re both popular sports that everyone knows, and can’t be counted out.
Roller sports: In consideration. It might be the dark-horse favorite if only because Olympics fans are familiar with its winter cousins. Roller sports includes six disciplines ranging from speed skating and roller figure skating to rink hockey and roller derby. Yes, that’s right, Olympic roller derby. That’s reason enough.
Wake boarding: Talking ourselves into it. A few years ago we’d say wake boarding was too X-Gamesy for the Olympics, but with guys like Shaun White regularly bringing medals back to the States, the audiences from both sporting events seem to be merging. It’s also great on television, though not for live spectators.
Wushu: Hmmmm. Earns points for combining all the best from other martial arts, and for literally being the chinese word for “martial arts.” But wushu loses points because few people have heard of it, and because it’s going up against the more well-known Karate, despite being more entertaining. Speaking of which…
Karate: Meh. We already have taekwondo and judo, so all Karate is bringing to the table is a different scoring system. Think the All-Valley Tournament at the end of The Karate Kid (but without the evil gang of teenagers). It already lost out for Rio and we’re just not sure its different enough to stand out.
Sport climbing: Low. Awesome sport, terrible spectator experience. It’s just difficult to televise athletes literally up against a wall. That said, if you sent some American Gladiators to chase them after ten seconds or so, we’d absolutely be into it. Otherwise, this one is probably near the bottom of the list.
