Thu, Feb 12, 2015 page19

• Cash and prestige drive race for places in Tokyo

  • AFP, LAUSANNE, Switzerland
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  An array of sports — from baseball to wushu — are battling for a place in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with cash as much as prestige the driving force.

  Hundreds of millions of dollars in television revenues are to be handed out to the lucky federations that get a place in the Tokyo summer Games.

  Reforms to the Games made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in December last year will allow the Tokyo organizers to propose one or more new sports for the program.

  The Japanese organizers have until September to make up their minds. A long list of sports is already knocking on the door and the lobbying will intensify as the Olympic movement mulls a decision.

  Baseball and softball, which were dropped after the 2008 Beijing Games, are considered favorites for a return. Professional baseball is a top sport in Japan.

  However, street basketball, billiards, karate, sport climbing, squash — who like a joint baseball/softball bid lost out in 2013 to wrestling — surfing and wushu all think they deserve a chance — on merit and because of the reforms pressed through by IOC president Thomas Bach.

  A place in the Olympic village brings publicity and money, as one-third of the Games television rights are given to the sports federations represented.

  After the 2008 Beijing Games, US$295 million dollars was handed out. This rose to US$515 million for the 2012 London Games. For the Winter Olympics, US$210 million was handed out after Vancouver in 2010.

  After the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, athletics, swimming and gymnastics are to get the biggest shares of the TV pot.

  “There’s big revenue involved, especially for some small sports,” said Calum Murray, editorial director for Sportcal, a sports marketing Web site.

  He said some of the Olympic sports would not exist without this television money.

  However, some of the specialist sports reject the notion that they are also-rans in the Olympic contest.

  Archery sets out its case that it was one of the first Olympic sports.

  “Since London 2012, World Archery has seen an increase in membership around the world of 25 percent — at a conservative estimate — with many new athletes citing the competition at the Games as influencing their decision to take up the sport,” said Tom Dielen, secretary-general of the sport’s international federation.

  New competition rules have been introduced to add excitement and try to attract television cameras.

  The increased membership and improved marketing have helped archery reduce its dependence on Olympic money, Dielen added.

  The London Games featured 26 sports and normally the IOC does not want more than 28. However, under the new rules it has only set a maximum number of gold medal events — 310 — and a limit of 10,000 athletes.

  While many want more variety and to modernize the Games, adding a new medal event will mean events will have to be cut somewhere.

  And while there is much speculation about which sports will be added, key federations are also worried about losing events.

  Talk in Olympic circles has been about athletics’ triple jump or even the 10,000m race being cut.

  Synchronized swimming and modern pentathlon — which to many people’s surprise survived the last time the sports were reviewed in 2013 — have also been tipped for the chop.

  Athletics accounts for 47 gold medals and seems the most vulnerable. However, Sebastian Coe, who is standing for the international athletics federation (IAAF) presidency, has insisted that all events are “important.”

  Cornel Marcelescu, executive director of the international swimming federation, FINA, shot down any suggestion of reducing swimming events.

  “The swimming program at the London Games had the biggest television audience,” Marcelescu told reporters. “With this success, we want to increase the number of events.”

  The IOC will not make a final decision on the new sports until August next year, which leaves plenty of time for fierce lobbying.

  And no matter who wins in Tokyo, the battle will not end there.

  International Wushu Federation executive vice president Anthony Goh said that his sport has an “excellent chance” for 2024.
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