Dressage-News

BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 8–Equestrian sport–dressage, eventing and jumping–was voted in Sunday as one of the 25 core sports for the 2020 Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo that will mark the 108th year of horse events on the world’s premier sports stage.

Equestrian was one of the 25 core sports that the International Olympic Committee voted to include in the program for the 2020 Games that were awarded to Tokyo a day earlier.

Dressage, eventing and jumping were first staged at the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912.

The IOC session approved the Executive Board recommendation for athletics, rowing, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, weightlifting, handball, hockey, judo, aquatics, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon, sailing and volleyball. Wrestling had been dropped but a campaign to have it restored was successful and it was voted in for the 2020 and 2024 Games.

In an effort to control the size, cost and complexity of the Games, the Olympic program in 2002 was capped at 28 sports of about 300 events and a target of 10,500 athletes.

The IOC also conducts a review of the lineup after every edition of the Games to provide regular rejuvenation while maintaining continuity and consistency. The concept of a core group of 25 sports with a maximum of three additional sports was adopted in 2007. In 2009, golf and rugby sevens were added to Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

At its session Saturday, the IOC awarded Tokyo the 2020 Games over bids from Istanbul and Madrid, by 60 votes to Istanbul’s 36.

Madrid was eliminated in the first round.

The 2020 Olympics will be the second for the Japanese capital, the first being in 1964.

Voting results for the 2020 host city:

Round 1
Tokyo: 42
Istanbul: 26
Madrid: 26

Round 1 tie-breaker
Istanbul: 49
Madrid: 45

Round 2
Tokyo: 60
Istanbul: 36