The 4 New Sports Present in Tokyo 2021

One of the many new features for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games is that there will be four new debuting sports and one that'll make a come back.

With the Tokyo Olympic Games now delayed to 2021, we already have the list of the disciplines that’ll be present. And the four new sports that’ll debut in this edition are calling our attention! We’ll tell you all about them in the following article.

What are the new sports for Tokyo 2021?

All of the sports that made an appearance in Rio de Janeiro 2016 will continue in Tokyo 2021. At one point, both free and Greco-Roman wrestling had been excluded, but they finally decided to keep them, as well as golf and rugby 7, the ‘new’ Olympic sports.

In August 2016, they made the decision to include five extra disciplines in the Japan Games. Meanwhile, baseball will be returning after its elimination in London 2012 and Rio 2016. The four new sports debuting in Tokyo are:

1. Karate: an ancient sport debuting in Tokyo 2021

This traditional martial art from the Ryukyu Islands (now know as Japan) dates back to the 16th century. With native fighting techniques, it’s characterized by not using weapons, but rather fists, kicks, blocks, and an open hand; karate basically just means ’empty hand’.

The practice of this sport, which will debut in Tokyo 2021, includes certain rituals such as greetings and courtesies before and after combat. The karate traditional clothing consists of a jacket, pants, and a belt or obi.

2. Sport climbing

This activity consists of climbing on walls using only physical force. Climbing is an activity that derives from mountaineering, and it originated in Germany and England in the 19th century.

As time went by, the difficulty levels of the tests increased. In the sixties, climbing wall venues began opening, they were artificial settings to practice climbing.

Sport climbing during the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games will take place in the Aomi Urban Sports Center. There will be two different categories: male and female.

The medal winners will be determined by the average score of three modalities: bouldering or block climbing, speed, and difficulty or lead climbing.

3. Skateboarding: urban life meets Tokyo 2021

It’s a sport that consists of sliding on a skateboard with four wheels and performing different tricks, figures, and stunts. The stunts are divided into different categories: ollie (basic), nollie, flat ground or flip tricks, lip, stall or lace, skate street, grinds, and old school, among others.

Skateboarding at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games will take place at the Aomi Urban Sports Center. There will be four competitions, two for men and two for women. The modalities will be street and park.

4. Surf

The fourth new sport for Tokyo is aquatic, and it consists of performing turns and maneuvers on the board and taking advantage of the force of the waves. Surfing has been around for centuries, and the first to ‘play’ in the ocean were the people from Polynesia. When explorer James Cook arrived in Hawaii, he learned about bodysurfing (without a board) and bodyboard.

There are also vestiges of this sport in the north of Peru, where the natives climbed on pieces of wood to slide among the waves. Of course, the techniques and materials changed eventually; currently, there are three variables depending on the length of the board: intermediate, short, and long.

Surfing competitions at the Tokyo Games will be held at Tsurigasaki Beach, in the town of Ichinomiya, southeast of the city. There will be a men’s and a women’s event.

Finally, we can’t leave out another sport that returns for Tokyo 2021: baseball, a very popular sport on this island. Another similar discipline is softball, there will only be a female modality in this edition.

The competitions of both disciplines will take place in two stadiums: the Yokohama Stadium and the Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium, with capacity for 30,000 spectators each.