Clockwise from the top left, the six new sports are karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing, baseball and softball.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
At the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, athletes from around the world competed for the first time in karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing. Baseball and softball too made a return, after having been excluded from the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. Here’s how each sport is played and judged, and who clinched medals at each inaugural event.
Karate
Two types of karate events were held at the 2020 Olympics: Kata and Kumite. Divided into different events by gender and weight categories, 20 pugilists competed in Kata, while 60 competed in Kumite.
There are many types of karate styles, each with its own detailed form, known as “kata”. Only a few styles of kata were allowed in the 2020 Olympics. In a Kata competition, two opponents, one wearing a red belt and the other wearing a blue belt, display their kata and judges judge them based on the power and correctness of their form. The judges then raise a blue or red flag to express who they think performed better. The exponent with the most flags raised in his or her favour is the winner.
In Kumite events, two opponents fight for three minutes and score points by landing permitted types of strikes on their opponents. The first competitor to score eight points wins. If neither athlete accumulates eight points by the end of three minutes, the athlete with the most points wins. If the opponents are tied on points, the competitor who scored the first unopposed point wins.
Ryo Kiyuna of Japan won the men’s Kata event and Sandra Sánchez won the women’s Kata event. The Kumite gold medal winners are Steven Da Costa of France (men’s 67kg), Luigi Busà of Italy (men’s 75kg), Sajjad Ganjzadeh of Iran (men’s +75kg), Ivet Goranova of Bulgaria (women’s 55kg), Jovana Preković of Serbia (men’s 61kg) and Feryal Abdelaziz of Egypt (women’s +61kg).
Skateboarding
In the 1940s, young people in the west coast of the United States of America made simple vehicles out of metal wheels and wooden boards. As the design of the early skateboard improved, skateboarding became more popular across America and around the world. Improved designs were more mobile and versatile, which made the skateboard more than a mode of transport – skateboarders began inventing an array of flashy skateboarding tricks.
At the 2020 Olympics, 80 men and women from 25 countries competed in “Street” and “Park” courses. The former course mimics an urban street, while the latter is a conventional skate park. These different types of courses comprise a wide array of features, where the skateboarders performed many different tricks and were graded by judges based on the difficulty and composition of the tricks, vertical height, speed, execution and originality.
In Olympic Skateboarding, the competitors of each category compete in a first round of heats, where each person performs three runs of 45 seconds each. The top eight skaters proceed to the finals, which also consist of three runs of 45 seconds that decide the winner. Skating in the 2020 Olympics, 12-year-old silver medallist Kokona Hiraki and
13-year-old bronze medallist Sky Brown became two of the youngest ever Olympic medallists.
Keegan Palmer of Australia won the men’s Park event, Sakura Yosozumi of Japan won the women’s Park event,
Yuto Horigome of Japan won the men’s Street event and Momiji Nishiya of Japan won the women’s Street event.
Sport Climbing
At the 2020 Olympics, a men’s and a women’s Sport Climbing event were held. Each comprised three disciplines: Speed Climbing, Lead Climbing and Bouldering. Competitors climb with their bare hands and climbing shoes and this sport tests their flexibility, skill, strength and planning.
In Speed Climbing, two competitors climb the same 15-metre-tall wall, set at an angle of 95 degrees. The faster climber wins and world-class climbers usually complete this sprint in five or six seconds.
In Lead Climbing, a climber is given six minutes to climb as high as he or she can up a 15-metre-tall wall. The person who climbs the highest wins. If two people climb to the exact same height, the first person to attain that height wins. If a competitor falls, the height attained is recorded.
In Bouldering, climbers have four minutes to climb as many fixed routes as they can, on a 4.5-metre wall. The routes vary in difficulty and climbers have safety mats but do not have safety ropes. If they fall, they can start the route again.
Alberto Ginés López of Spain took the men’s gold medal, while Janja Garnbret of Slovenia won the women’s gold medal.
Surfing
Invented by the Polynesians, surfing was popularised by Duke Kahanamoku from Hawaii, who won three Olympic gold medals in swimming in the early 20th century. At the 2020 Olympics, Duke’s dream of surfing being incorporated into the Olympics was realised.
Like Olympic Skateboarding, competitors of Olympic Surfing take part in heats that normally last 30 minutes each, where they are judged based on elements like the creativity and degree of difficulty of their tricks. This duration is decided by the Technical Director according to the conditions of the day. In a heat, a surfer can ride a maximum of 25 waves, and his or her two highest scoring waves will be added to make up their total points.
After the initial rounds, surfers then compete in one-on-one elimination rounds – the winner progresses and the loser is eliminated – until the finals where the gold and silver medal winners are decided.
The surfing events of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were held at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach in Chiba, Japan, but the surfing events of the Paris 2024 Olympics will be held thousands of kilometres away in Tahiti.
Ítalo Ferreira of Brazil won the men’s gold medal while Carissa Moore of the United States of America clinched the women’s gold medal.
Baseball and Softball
These two team sports made their return to the Olympics after being left out of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The objective of both baseball and softball is to score more runs than your opponent. The batter tries to hit the ball pitched to him or her as far as possible, so that he or she will have maximal time to run to as many bases on the diamond-shaped field as possible, before the opposing team collects the ball and throws it back to the base. If the batter fails to hit the ball after three legal pitches, he or she ‘strikes out’.
Baseball fields are larger than softball fields and baseball bats are longer than softball bats, while a softball is larger and heavier than a baseball. The main difference is, a baseball pitcher pitches with an overhand throw from an elevated compact mound, while a softball pitcher pitches with an underhand throw from a designated pitching circle. Baseball games comprise nine innings each and can go into extra innings in the event of a tie, but softball games are played to seven innings and can end early if one team gains a very large lead over the other.
Host nation Japan won the gold medals for both the Baseball and Softball events.
If you feel inspired to try your hand at these new Olympic sports, head to Singapore Sports Hub, which has dedicated venues like Climb Central, Stingray® and the Singapore Sports Hub skate park, where you can experience sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding.
