The Olympics Games are a set of competitions between individual athletes or teams from numerous countries across a variety of sports. The games are split into two seasons: the Winter Olympic Games and the Summer Olympic Games. Each set of seasonal games occurs every four years, with a staggered schedule, so one set of Olympic Games takes place every two years. This upcoming summer of 2024, the Summer Olympics will take place in Paris. It is not always guaranteed that the same sports will be played every four years. For instance, two major sports: baseball and softball have not always appeared in the Summer Olympic Games.
Many sports have been gradually introduced to the Olympics as “demonstration sports” or soft entries into the games. For example, baseball was introduced as a demonstration sport to boost popularity instead of competition for a medal. It wasn’t until the 1992 Barcelona Games that baseball was officially incorporated as a medaled sport and later the 1996 Atlanta Games when softball was officially introduced. Both sports appeared during the games of 2000, 2004, and 2008, but were removed thereafter. Baseball and softball were reintroduced in the 2020 Tokyo Games (moved to 2021 due to covid-19). Another sport, karate, was introduced in the 2020 Tokyo Games. All three sports have since been removed from the list of sports for the upcoming 2024 Paris Games.
Sports including surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing were also introduced in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, though they will reappear this upcoming summer. The 2024 Paris Olympic Games will introduce breakdancing as a medaled sport, but this comes at the expense of baseball, softball, and karate. The 2020 Summer Olympics were hosted in Tokyo. Japan is home to the sport of karate, as well as a hub of popularity for both baseball and softball, so it made sense for these sports to be included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The International Olympic Committee allows the hosting cities to add sports that are popular in their country and conversely, do remove sports that are not as widely played there. This is why Paris decided to omit baseball, softball, and karate from this upcoming summer’s games.
The removal of these sports caused a negative reaction among athletes and fans throughout social media. Particularly, fans of softball were extremely upset about the removal of their favored sport. Throughout the past Olympic Games featuring softball, the sport has proven to be extremely exciting and highly competitive. It is a dream for many young athletes to be able to compete for their country on debatably the largest stage of their lives. Recently, softball has become one of the most popular sports on recreational, high school, collegiate, and newly professional levels, at least in North America. The removal of softball from the Paris games is a setback to the progress softball has made. Withdrawing softball from Olympic competition could discourage participation from girls of all ages all over the world. Reacting to this, many of the world famous, high visibility softball players such as Jennie Finch and Monica Abbott lobbied the Olympic Committee to include the sport in the 2028 games.
For the upcoming 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, baseball, softball, and karate will not appear. However, it has been determined that the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics will feature both baseball and softball, but karate will not be included. This is welcome news for the athletes and fans of these sports but also serves as a reminder that the inclusion of their sports is not always a given and must be lobbied for with every Olympic cycle.
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