IOC Executive Board to Propose Equestrian Stay as Core Sport for 2020 Olympic Games
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The International Olympic Committee Executive Board on Tuesday recommended 25 core sports–including equestrian–for the 2020 Olympic Games at a city still to be selected.
Agreement on the slate of sports it will recommend was made at the latest IOC session, and agreed to recommend dropping wrestling.
The 25 sports to be reommended are: athletics, rowing, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, weightlifting, handball, hockey, judo, swimming, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon, sailing and volleyball.
Wrestling, governed by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, was dropped from the list of core sports but join seven shortlisted sports–baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and wushu–vying for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic program as an additional sport.
The eight sports are scheduled to make presentations to the Executive Board at its meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, in May. The EB will select which of the eight sports to recommend to the 125th IOC Session for inclusion as an additional sport on the 2020 program.
“In an effort to ensure the Olympic Games remain relevant to sports fans of all generations, the Olympic Program Commission systematically reviews every sport following each edition of the Games,” the IOC said in a statement.
The review was undertaken after the Olympics in London last summer where equestrian sports were held in historic Greenwich Park overlooking the London and were universally acclaimed as a major success. The equestrian disciplies of dressage, eventing and jumping were free of doping that had marred the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games.
If the recommendations are adopted, 2020 will mark 108 years of equestrian sports in the Olympics.
Golf and rugby sevens were added in 2009 as additional sports to the 2016 Olympic program for Rio de Janeiro, the first time the Games will be staged in South America.
The 125th IOC Session will take place from Sept. 7-10 in Buenos Aires.
