As evidence by some of the additions to the Olympic program for the 2020 Tokyo Games, the IOC's latest obsession is clearly mixed gender team events. I kinda get it. Mixed events don't add any athletes, and, for the most part, they're kinda cool. It just seemed a little odd that they chose to add some mixed events and not others, and some of the ones they added came completely out of left field.
For example, swimming has the mixed 4x100 freestyle relay and the mixed 4x100 medley relay at the World Championships, but they only added the mixed freestyle to the Olympics. Why not both? Likewise, they added a mixed 4x400 relay in track & field (even though the IAAF doesn't seem to want any part of it), but not a mixed 4x100. Neither one of those events is in the World Championships, but the mixed 4x400 was featured at this year's World Relays.
What surprised me was that they didn't add mixed synchronized diving. When they said that the IOC was looking to increase the number of mixed events on the Olympic program, I figured those were both shoo-ins. They have both springboard and platform mixed synchro, and I'm actually looking forward to watching both at the World Championships next month. Diving is still considered one of the marquee Olympic sports, and adding the two mixed synchro events would've increased diving's total to 10 gold medals.
I have no problem with the mixed events that came about organically. No one bats an eye about mixed doubles in tennis. Having mixed doubles in badminton and table tennis is essentially the same thing. Singles, doubles and mixed doubles makes complete sense in each of those sports.
Some of the sports that had mixed team events added just leave me scratching my head, though. A judo mixed team event? How exactly does that work?
Why stop there? I can think of plenty of sports that you can create a mixed event in. I was joking with a friend the other day that they should add mixed beach volleyball, then I thought about how awesome that would actually be. Just imagine for a second how much NBC would love that!
That's a more extreme (and slightly ridiculous) example, but, if they wanted to, they really could make a mixed event in pretty much any sport, whether it already exists or not. They've got a mixed team competition in judo. Why not all the combat sports? Wrestling, taekwondo, boxing, heck, even karate (which I hope is a one-and-done Olympic sport), let all of them have a mixed team event. Who cares if it makes sense?
How about weightlifting? It wouldn't be too hard. Just combine the total amount of weight lifted by each one. Archery would be really easy. They already have a team competition. You just make it a man and a woman instead of all one gender. Same thing with fencing. The men go against the men and the women go against the women, but it's all part of the same team competition.
Or gymnastics? I'm sure they could figure out some sort of mixed team event, even if it's just like the figure skating team event where the men do their events, the women do their events, and the scores are just added together. Same thing with some of the new sports. In sport climbing, times could simply be added together. So could scores in surfing.
Rowing? Throw them in the same boat. They already do that at the Paralympics. Same thing with canoe/kayak. Obviously not singles, but you could easily do a two-person boat with a man and a woman. Sailing already has a bunch of mixed events, although I'm not sure any are currently on the Olympic program (they've changed so many events in so many sports since Rio that it's hard to keep track). And equestrian doesn't have to worry about it, since they've never separated riders by gender to begin with.
It's really only the team sports that would cause problems. Men's and women's team sports are simply too different, and I don't think there's anyone clamoring for putting them all on the same field. Although, it would be possible to feature mixed 3x3 basketball games, as long as the male-female breakdown is even between the teams.
There's nothing wrong with mixed events. They generate camaraderie between athletes, and they're usually pretty entertaining. I'm just not sure how necessary it is to jam them down sports federations' throats, though. Again, some mixed events came about organically and seemed like natural additions to the program. But there are plenty of others that seem forced. And I'm not sure if they'll actually accomplish the IOC's goals. Especially because they don't really seem necessary.
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