Five sports, including baseball, skateboarding and surfing, are set to feature at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after the IOC recommended them to attract a younger audience and boost local support for the Games. The International Olympic Committee must now rubber-stamp the inclusion of skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing and karate plus the joint baseball/softball bid at its session in Rio de Janeiro in August. This means that all those associated with the event must adjust their needs and provisions accordingly. From the bookies modifying their sportsbook platform features to accommodate, to those hosting the events themselves, everyone must put in their best effort for these new events..

The IOC Executive Board voted unanimously in favour of the proposal put forward by Tokyo 2020, recommending it as a package. Under new rules, Olympic host cities can hand-pick sports they want in the Games to join the existing 28 core sports.

The decision over which sports will be added to the Olympics only applies to one edition of the Games. Baseball and softball, which will have each a competition with six teams, last featured at the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 before being taken off the programme. Surfing, with 20 men and 20 women athletes, will take place in the sea, instead of on artificial waves.

Karate will have two events (one men’s and one women’s) for kata and three weight classes for kumite. Sports climbing will feature men’s and women’s competitions for bouldering, lead and speed combined. A total of 474 athletes are expected to compete in the five sports in Tokyo.