Change For the Sake of Change

As a part of the Olympic reforms known as "Agenda 2020," the Olympic program was shifted from a sport-based program to an event-based program.  We've already seen the effects of this change, as five sports have been added for the 2020 Tokyo Games.  Those likely aren't the only changes to the Olympic program we'll see in Tokyo, though.  A number of international federations have proposed adding new events within their sport or dropping one event and replacing it with another.

In fact, MOST of the international federations have made proposals to have additional gold medals awarded in their sport at the Tokyo Games.  None of this has been officially confirmed, but if the information that's been leaked out is correct, 15 different federations have made requests.  Some are reasonable in what they're asking.  For example, table tennis wants mixed doubles and some of the sports with weight classes have asked for an extra one or two.  While others are being incredibly ambitious.  FINA has asked for 13 new events, including eight in swimming alone.

Some of these proposed changes make a lot of sense.  They had previously announced even before the end of the Rio Games that in whitewater canoeing, the men's doubles canoe would be replaced by a women's singles canoe, giving them two men's and two women's events (a kayak singles and a canoe singles in each).  Likewise, the flatwater canoe/kayak program has also been changed to add some women's events.  They're also changing the program in track cycling so that the men's and women's events are equal.

There are other proposed new events that don't just seem logical, they seem like they'd be great additions to the Olympic program.  The triathlon mixed relay, which I think is likely to pass, is an example of this.  High diving also sounds like an excellent addition.  And just think of those picturesque views of the host city that high diving would produce!  Three-on-three basketball also seems likely to get approved, although I'm lukewarm on that one (do you really need a 5x5 version and a 3x3 version of the same sport?).

Then there are the events like mixed doubles table tennis, which is harmless enough.  It adds a gold medal for China, but I think most people would agree that they wouldn't really have a problem with mixed doubles table tennis.  It doesn't add any athletes, either, which is important since they're trying to still keep the athlete count around 10,500.  Likewise, the eight additional swimming events (which, if approved, would make the programs at the Olympics and World Championships identical) wouldn't add any athletes.  Same thing with a bunch of proposed mixed team events.

That's really one of the IOC's big goals here.  Ideally, they want the Olympic program to be a 50-50 split between men's and women's events.  In fact, Olympic Agenda 2020 directly mentions the goal to "foster gender equality" by "encouraging the inclusion of mixed-gender team events."  After all, they've seen success with mixed team events/relays in the past, and we're starting to see them pop up more and more at the various World Championships.

I've seen mixed gender team events that do work.  They have the mixed freestyle and medley relays at the swimming World Championships, and the track & field World Relays just concluded with a scintillating mixed 4x400 meter relay that was won by the host Bahamas.  And, I'm not sure if it's been proposed or not, but mixed synchronized diving seems like it could be cool.  And I've already mentioned the triathlon relay.

But some of the mixed gender proposals for Tokyo just seem forced.  They've proposed mixed synchronized swimming.  Along with rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming is one of two Olympic sports in which only women participate.  Does that mean we want to watch male synchronized swimmers, though?  Likewise, do we need a mixed race walking relay?

The Olympics are desperately trying to appeal to youngsters, and events like that aren't the way to do it.  There are also plenty of people within some of the international federations that aren't happy about the proposed new events (or, more specifically, the events that would be dropped and replaced with the new ones).  A high-ranking official with the International Sport Shooting Federation has spoken out about his sport's changes, and the 50 kilometer race walk, which has been endangered for a while, was saved after a vigorous social media campaign by the race walkers themselves.

Thankfully, most of these proposals probably won't go through.  They want to keep the number of total events roughly around 310, and there were 306 in Rio.  With the five new sports coming on the program, that's already going to bring it over 310.  I have no doubt that we will see some of them, though.  And not just the good ones like high diving and the triathlon mixed relay.

Change isn't a bad thing, and I applaud the IOC for it's efforts to keep the Olympic program fresh and relevant.  But those changes need to make sense.  And that's not what this is.  A lot of this would be change for the sake of change.  I hope they realize that when they get together and decide on the program for Tokyo 2020.