Sport Inclusion at the Olympics

In July 2007, the International Olympic Committee adopted more flexible rules to add new Olympic sports. This has given renewed hope to many sports that have been on the waiting list for many years. Such sports include Rugby, Golf, Karate, Squash and Roller Sports. In 2009, Rugby and Golf were selected to make a comeback to the Olympic program for Rio in 2016. In 2013, wrestling was dropped from the core sports list, opening up a place for another sport to be included in the program, but later that year was surprisingly voted back on the list.

New System

A new system was introduced, which consisted of 25 core sports with three “floating” sports. This new system was set to start from the Olympics from 2020. The cap of 28 sport was then lifted to a more flexibile model. However, it is not all good news, as all sports would be up for review after each Olympics. New sports will be included or others dropped by a simple majority vote (compared to currently requiring a 2/3’s majority). 

List of 28 Sports

1. archery
2. rowing
3. badminton
4. basketball
5. boxing
6. canoeing
7. cycling
8. equestrian
9. fencing
10. football
11. golf
12. gymnastics
13. handball
14. hockey
15. judo
16. modern pentathlon
17. rugby
18. sailing
19. shooting
20. swimming (aquatics)
21. table tennis
22. taekwondo
23. tennis
24. track and field
25. triathlon
26. volleyball
27. weight lifting
28. wrestling

Dropping Sports

There needs to be exceptional circumstances for a core sport to be dropped from the program, such as a drug scandal, corruption or a massive drop in popularity. There were 28 different sports on the program for the Beijing Games, which was reduced to 26 for London when Baseball and Softball were dropped from the program. In 2013, wrestling was dropped from the sports list (but reinstated later).

New Sports

There are always new and ex-Olympic sports vying for a place on the Olympic program. Recently, the popular choices have included baseball and softball (joint bid), climbing, karate, roller sport, squash, wakeboard and wushu. Surfing, dancing, bowling and netball have also been considered. See our article about future Olympic sports for more details.

Criteria

The Tokyo 2020 committee listed the following criteria for new sports: added value; youth appeal; attractiveness for TV, media and the general public; gender equality; minimum impact on the number of events and/or quotas, infrastructure and operational costs and complexity. - topendsports