The opening ceremony is less than two years away from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo when 11,000 athletes will be participating in a whole range of sports events. Several of the events are new and recently added to the games. According to the Olympic Games committee, several new sports events will be added to the 2020 Games, while many will be returning. Multiple changes are part of the 2020 Olympic Games, and over the next two weeks, we look at the changes you can expect.

Archery Part of the Olympic Games since 1972

Since 1972, Archery has been listed on the Olympic program and adds a mixed team event to the women’s and men’s existing individual team events in 2020. The diverse team’s event will be a match play format that teams up one woman and one man facing off head-to-head. This type of event was already tested at both the 2010 and 2014 Youth Olympic Games and challenged since 2011 at the World Archery Championships. During the past few years, Olympians such as Mackenzie Brown and Brady Ellison & Katuna Lorig have been super successful on the world stage.

Softball/Baseball

Women’s softball and men’s baseball are returning to the Olympic Games program after an absence of two-games. Tokyo is a country that favours both, and there is no doubt that fans will pack the stadium when it is time for Samurai Japan to play. Although all eyes are on Team USA, which is the favourites and could be the team to beat as they have won all the recent World Baseball Classics. The US softball team will defend its world championship in Japan soon, while baseball was part of the Olympic games from 1992 up to 2008. The Team USA earned medals in three of their five Olympic appearances and three golds, and one silver was claimed from 1996 to 2008 by the women’s softball team.

Basketball

The addition of the 3-on-3 variant, four additional Olympic medals are available to basketball teams made up for four athletes. The single basket court is a 3×3 and the shots inside of the arc worth one point, while all chances from outside are worth two points. The winners are the first team to reach 21 points or the team that manages to lead after the 10-minute regulation time. The 3×3 debuted at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and now also has a FIBA World Cup. At the 2014 Youth Games, the US Women’s team won gold and two of the players are now even part of the national team.

Boxing

In the 2020 Olympic Games, greater gender equality is part of boxing, since the number of men’s weight division is from 10 to 8 and the women are increased from 3 to 5. Women’s boxing became part of the Olympic Games in 2012 and since Claressa Shields won gold in middleweight in 2012 as well as 2016.
Several other changes are also taking place in Kayak/Canoe, Fencing, Cycling, Rowing, Karate and Shooting, discussed next week.