The Olympics is a very large and well-known competition of both summer and winter sports. This summer Olympics is highly anticipated as it gets closer. Not only does the Summer Olympics have many sports that vary from Archery to Judo, but this upcoming Olympics has also added five new sports to its roster; karate, Skateboarding, Surfing, Sport Climbing, Baseball, and Softball.

The first sport added is Karate. Karate is a martial arts that was created in Japan, which is also where the Summer Olympics is being held this year. The Olympics already has Judo and Taekwondo, you would think that Karate would be in this mix much earlier than it is but it was only recently added. The sparring will have three weight classes for both women and men, and the competition will give the competitors the ability to display how well they are able to perform karate movements.

The next sport that is being added to the Summer Olympics is Skateboarding. Skateboarding will have two events, Park and Street, which will be broken down between Women and Men. The ‘Street’ event will be held on a street-like course with stairs, benches, handrails, walls slopes, and curbs so competitors and show off their skill and how well they pull off tricks in this setting. The ‘Park’ event will take place in a hollowed-out course with different and complicated curves and dome-shaped bowls. Competitors will use the hollowness of the course to perform tricks going down the ramp and back up onto the deck where many midair tricks are taken place.

Surfing is also making its debut for the Summer Olympics, and it is being anticipated as well. The decision for adding Surfing to the 2020 Summer Olympics was a unanimous one, with all 90 IOC (International Olympic Committee) members voting in favor of this summer sport. Many thought that the event would take place on a wave pool in an artificial arena with the same waves for everyone, but this is not the case. Officials announced that the Olympic surfing competition will be taken place in the ocean. The beach decided for this is Shidashita Beach, which is located about forty miles from Tokyo.

Sport Climbing is our next new sport for the Olympics. The sport is essentially rock climbing, it uses brightly colored hand and foot holds for the climbers to grab onto as they scale a steep wall. There will be three different events for it, bouldering, speed climbing, and lead climbing. Speed climbing is when two athletes are put against each other to scale a 15-meter wall on a fixed route the fastest. Bouldering is where athletes will scale as many fixed routes on a 4-meter wall in four minutes. To be deemed as completing a route, the athlete has to have both hands on the top of the route. Finally, there is lead climbing. Lead climbing includes athletes climbing along a 15-meter wall as high as they can during the six-minute time limit. For safety reasons, climbers use rope and attach them to quickdraws, which is equipment that allows the rope to run freely. When a climber attaches their rope to the top quickdraw they have completed the climb and their height will be recorded.

The last and certainly not least is baseball and softball. The two sports are the last ones added to the 2020 Summer Olympics, given the popularity of baseball in Japan, this is another Olympic sport that is being anticipated. Baseball used to be a ‘demonstration sport’ at many games, before getting classified as a medal sport in 1992 at Barcelona. It wasn’t until Beijing 2008 that it was taken off of the program. Now back in the running, in 2020 six nations will have teams representing them, and will have the opportunity to show off their skill and compete for the gold medal.