Following Olympic Agenda 2020 announcements, new reforms agreed by the IOC for the Olympic Games published last December gave Games Organisers permission to propose one or more additional events to be included in the programme. All IOC recognized International Federations, including the IWWF, could make inclusion proposals. The new “events” based system replaced the limit of 28 sports of the past. This would greatly facilitate the addition of new events without the removal of entire sports.
The IWWF submitted all of the required forms to the Tokyo 2020 organisers for consideration of Wakeboard by the deadline of June 8th. At that time, Baseball/Softball was highly favored for addition due to its enormous popularity in Japan.
Following the June 8th submission date, all contenders have been reviewed in
Tokyo and the results are as follows.
The sports not selected on this occasion for the shortlist by the Tokyo
organizers are Air Sports, American Football, Bowls, Bridge, Chess, Dance
Sport, Floorball, Flying Disc, Korfball, Netball, Orienteering, Polo, Racquetball,
Sumo, Tug of War, Underwater Sports and Wakeboard
The sports selected by the Tokyo organizers are as anticipated Baseball/Softball, plus Squash, Karate, Surfing, Bowling, Roller Sports, Sport Climbing, and Wushu.
Tokyo will make its final proposal to the IOC by September 30th. Based on this, the IOC will make its final decision by August 2016.
IWWF President Kuno Ritschard stated “while we share our great disappointment with the 16 other sports not shortlisted for 2020 at this time, we know that we have made great progress in raising the profile of Wakeboard within the IOC. We also fully understand that the further global development of Cable Parks will take time and our belief that Wakeboard, as an exciting youth driven sport, is fully worthy of its place in the Olympics is stronger than ever. Our efforts will continue with the support of our Federations and extensive fan base”