04 Aug 2016

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved the inclusion of baseball/softball, karate, skateboard, sports climbing and surfing to the programme of the XXXII Olympiad set to take place in Tokyo, Japan in 2020.

The decision was taken in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the occasion of the 129^th session of the IOC yesterday and is in line with the organisation's Agenda 2020 that was approved in 2014.

Amongst other things, Agenda 2020, which has a total of 40 recommendations seeks to give host nations for Olympic Games some degree of latitude in recommending a few sports to be included in their edition, foster gender equality, and be youth friendly.

The five new sports codes will have the same number of women as men competing, and some, such as skateboard be very youth friendly.

Botswana National Olympic Committee chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufo,who is in Rio said in an interview that they were happy about the decision taken in the meeting.

He said it was a known fact that karate was one of the sports Botswana has been doing well in over the years.

"The inclusion of karate to us means many things, including that we will likely have a big delegation in Tokyo and our medal prospects will be enhanced”, he said.

Furthermore, he said while softball was fairly popular in Botswana, its inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games programme would likely result in heightened interest by athletes, the media, and the general public and potentially sponsors, which would be good for the sport and for the country.

He said while the other three sports either do not exist in Botswana or their development was still at an infancy stage, he said they too are presenting opportunities for Botswana.

"Skateboard is a new urban culture and I have observed over the years that young Batswana have been catching on to the sport in good numbers. 

The young athletes have practiced the sport out of their own drive and with virtually no support from us as sport authorities. Now if we are to formalize the practice of the sport and extend support to them, clearly there will be tremendous improvement in many respects, including athlete performance" Serufho said.

He further said besides sport related benefits, climbing and surfing had great tourism potential, especially in places like Selebi Phikwe which has many beautiful hills as well as dams in villages around it.

Parallel to promoting the sports for competition, he said the country can have both local and international tourists practicing the sports for leisure, and in the process boosting economies of host towns and villages. ENDS