Although a few events will kick off July 21, 2021, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games opening ceremony is slated for July 23.
The organizers have introduced five new sports for the events expected to end August 8, 2021.
While baseball-softball may come off as a reintroduction, Karate, surfing, sport climbing and skateboarding are entirely new additions in the history of the games.
The games will feature 339 events across 33 sports with Tokyo, Japan playing the hosting even though a number of sports and events will take place at venues outside the Japanese capital.
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The competition is due to take place across 41 different venues, including the Japan National Stadium, Tokyo Stadium and the Yokohama Stadium.
15 new gold medals will be awarded at the next Olympics for 3×3 basketball, BMX freestyle, and mixed-gender events with the aim of boosting equality.
Below explains the five new sports coming to Tokyo 2020:
Baseball-softball is among the ‘new’ sports but the two sports as baseball and softball were previously separate sports competed at the Olympic Games until exclusion following Beijing 2008.
Since both sports are hugely popular in Japan, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee used its status as host country to include baseball and softball on the programme once again as the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Olympic Agenda 2020 allows each hosting nation the chance to add sports to the programme for that edition.
The six teams will play in a single round-robin format, playing five matches each at the 34,000-capacity Yokohama Stadium and in Fukushima. The top two teams will move on to the gold medal game.
Karate will make its full Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 after being on the programme at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018, where Japan topped the medal table with one gold and three silver medals.
It will feature Kumite and Kata events, with 80 athletes overall competing, 60 in the former and 20 in the latter, with a 50/50 split between men and women.
Surfing competition debuting in Tokyo will be staged at Tsurigasaki Beach on the Chiba Peninsula on shortboards, with 40 athletes split evenly between men and women.
Sport climbing will involve 40 athletes in total in Tokyo, evenly split into two groups of 20, competing in three disciplines: bouldering, lead climbing and speed.
Each round will start with the presentation of the athletes, followed by an observation of the routes.
In lead, athletes attempt to climb as high as possible on a wall measuring more than 15m in height and 6m overhanging within a fixed time.
In bouldering, the objective is to overcome the most problems on a climbing route in the least number of attempts on 4.5m-high structures over a set period of time. The ranking is decided by the number of problems overcome.
Skateboarding competition will be held at the Ariake Urban Sports Park consisting of park and street competitions which include two rounds, known as prelims and finals, each.
