Skateboarding and surfing will be Olympic sports in 2020
The governing body of the Olympics approved five new sports for the 2020 Games in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Skateboarding, surfing, baseball/softball, karate and climbing will all be a part of the next Summer Olympics.
Olympics officials said the decision reflected their desire to attract young athletes and viewers to future Olympics.
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“We want to take sport to the youth," IOC President Thomas Bach said, according to the news release. "With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us. We have to go to them."
The new sports will bring about 474 new athletes fighting for medals in 18 new competitions.
“The inclusion of the package of new sports will afford young athletes the chance of a lifetime to realize their dreams of competing in the Olympic Games," said Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori.
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Topics Olympics
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
