With the IOC Session where they'll decide the 2022 host fast approaching, news on the Olympic front will definitely be increasing in the coming weeks. They've already taken care of some administrative issues regarding the sports programs for the upcoming Games where we do know the host.
Earlier this week, they once again expanded the program for the Winter Games, which will feature more than 100 events for the first time in Pyeongchang in 2018. They technically added four new events, but it's really six since two are mixed-gender. They also dropped the snowboarding parallel slalom, which just made its debut in Sochi. Replacing it (after a single Olympic appearance) is big air, another freestyle snowboarding event that the Americans and Canadians are good at and, thus, pushed for. It features snowboarders doing a single trick off a ramp like the ones on the slopestyle course. (I'm picturing something like freestyle aerials or ski jumping on a snowboard.) Naturally, a lot of the competitors in slopestyle will also be in the big air event.
They've also added a mass start event in speed skating. While it's what we've become accustomed to seeing in short track, they've only tried mass starts once in long track, and that was in 1932. The two mixed events, meanwhile, are an Alpine skiing team event and mixed doubles curling. The Alpine skiing team event has been in the World Championships for a while and includes head-to-head races on the same course just like the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding. The only difference between mixed doubles curling and regular curling is that the teams are male-female. Whether that means it's two of each gender or one and one I don't know. It doesn't really matter, though.
I'm not overly enamored with the addition of another freestyle snowboarding event (Sage Kotsenburg was stoned for like three days while giving interviews after his gold medal in Sochi, right?). But that's clearly the direction the IOC is going, so it's not a surprise. They want sports that are going to appeal to young people and will be watched on TV. Since the U.S. is good at freestyle snowboarding, that means medal potential, which also means NBC will show plenty of it (which equals high ratings for the sport).
The other three events are exciting additions, though. The mixed curling doesn't seem completely necessary, but there was no harm in adding it, either. It'll probably be the same athletes that are on the men's/women's teams for whatever country, so they'll have a chance to win a second gold medal. And curling has this cult following where people are glued to the TV every four years, so increasing the amount of time people can spend watching curling makes sense.
But I'm really excited about the other two new events. Especially the mass start speed skating. Speed skating's a great sport, but the one-at-a-time thing can make it somewhat hard to follow at times. That's one of the reasons the team pursuit has become so popular. Everybody starting together will significantly add to the excitement.
As for the Alpine skiing team event, it'll definitely be TV-friendly. And I think people really like the idea of Lindsay Vonn and Maria Reisch going head-to-head. I don't really know how the format works, or if they'd do it the same way at the Olympics, but the mixed-gender events are wildly popular, with the fans and the athletes. Just look at the figure skating team event and the luge team relay if you want examples. It was smart of the IOC to add more mixed events that, since they've already been a hit at World Championships, they know will work.
Meanwhile, now that the door has been opened, it seems incredibly likely that there will be at least one new sport on the program two years later in Tokyo. A total of 26 sports submitted applications, many of which have absolutely no chance of being in the Olympics (football, tug of war, sumo wrestling). Some seem like they would be an odd fit (air sports, underwater sports, ultimate frisbee). Others are featured in various international multi-sport games (lawn bowls, bowling, netball), while still others I had to look up to even find out what they were (floorball, korfball, wushu).
Then there are the ones that have been finalists for Olympic inclusion before and, I think, would make tremendous additions to the Olympic program. That list includes roller sports, sport climbing, bowling and karate. Even waterski/wakeboard and surfing, which I don't think have even a remote chance of making the semifinal list would be cool.
This is a two-horse race, though. It'll either be the baseball/softball joint bid or squash that is contested in Tokyo. Maybe both. I've gone on record as saying that I think baseball and, especially softball, never should've been dropped from the Olympics in the first place, so I'd welcome their return with open arms. Baseball and softball are viewed as the favorites to be added, too, due to their immense popularity in Japan.
However, I do have a slight hesitation with baseball/softball, and it has to do with the way the process of adding sports is set up. The IOC is leaving it up to the host committee which sports they'd like to recommend adding for their given Olympics. Which means it could be a one-Olympic appearance, which I don't think is fair to that sport. When rugby and golf were added for Rio, they were given a two-Olympic guarantee before determining their fate for 2024 and beyond. It's highly unlikely that they won't become permanent, though.
Baseball and softball have far less staying power than rugby and golf. They're immensely popular in Japan, which helps their cause for 2020, but what about 2024? Say those Games end up in Paris. Neither one is popular in France. They could be gone again just as quickly as they were added. In general, I'm opposed to dropping sports from the Olympics (especially when you screw up and vote out a sport that never should've been dropped anyway, so you put it right back in). Once you're in, you're in.
Squash, the other sport I've long advocated for Olympic inclusion, has far more staying power than baseball/softball would. Again, I don't know why squash isn't in the Olympics already. It's a finalist every time adding sports comes up, and it's featured in all of the major international multi-sport competitions. Also, check out the squash world rankings and you'll see players from everywhere.
For all the work baseball and softball have done to return to the Olympics, it would be a blow even more devastating for them to return just for Tokyo before being dropped again that it was when the IOC removed them from the program in the first place. Squash wouldn't have such a problem. If squash were to join the Olympic program in Tokyo, it'll be there for the long haul. But at the very least, I hope we see them both in 2020. For squash's debut and baseball/softball's triumphant return.
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