Baseball made its Olympic debut in 1904 at the third Olympics of the modern era. In total, competitions were held at 12 Olympics, the last of which was Beijing. Over the entire period, 17 different teams took part in the competition, three of which - Cuba, Italy and Japan - participated in all official competitions. Baseball was included in the Games program more often than other sports in the status of demonstration performances, but in 1992, at the games in Barcelona, medals were awarded in this sport for the first time.
At the IOC meeting in July 2005, baseball and softball were stripped of their status as Olympic sports. The regulation will come into force at the London 2012 Olympics.
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The first baseball competition at the Olympic Games took place in 1904. Eight years later, in Stockholm, the US team played against the Swedish team and won 13-3. Two American teams played at the Berlin Olympics. At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Finnish baseball was introduced and played by two Finnish teams. Australia played one exhibition match against the USA at the 1956 games, and Japan and the USA played at the 1964 games.
20 years later, baseball was reintroduced at the 1984 Olympics, as well as at the next games in Seoul.
Officially, baseball has been included in the Olympic program since the 1992 Olympics, when 8 teams participated. Professional players were not allowed to compete. The competition format has remained virtually unchanged since then, but in 2000 professionals were allowed to compete.
TASS, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has included karate, surfing, baseball/softball, rock climbing and skateboarding in the program of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The decision was unanimously made during the 129th session of the organization, which precedes the start of the Games in Rio de Janeiro.
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It is expected that the inclusion of these sports will increase the Olympic medal program by 18 sets, for which 474 athletes will compete.
In December we will present the final plan for sports facilities for competitions in these sports. New sports will make the Tokyo Games the most innovative in Olympic history.
John Coates, head of the Tokyo Olympics coordinating committee, vice-president of the IOC
The IOC noted that the new events will complement the Olympic program and will not be included in place of others. At the same time, the “new package” of competitions will be valid exclusively for the Tokyo Olympics; the organizing committees of the subsequent Summer Olympic Games will form a competitive program based on its current format.
Let's figure out what this innovation is and why these sports are needed at the Olympic Games at all.
Baseball/softball
In Japan, baseball is the most popular sport, ranking first in popularity at both the professional and amateur levels. Even such a popular national sport as sumo is only in third place after baseball and football.
Japanese baseball is also highly regarded outside of its own country, as Japanese teams display a high level of skill in international competitions. Some Japanese baseball players play in the major leagues of American teams. Matches with their participation are broadcast in their homeland in Japan as a sign of pride for their fellow citizens.
An outstanding Japanese baseball player is Ichiro Suzuki, the most valuable player of the Pacific League, who was accepted into the American baseball club in 2001. However, he plays for the Japanese national team in international competition and is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
Clearly, introducing the sport to the Tokyo Olympics is a smart move that the committee should have taken.
Rock climbing
Sport climbing as competitive rock climbing appeared in the USSR. The first rock climbing competitions were held in the USSR in the late 1940s. In 1955, the first USSR Climbing Championship was held. In 1966, the EESC included standards for categories III, II and I in rock climbing, and in 1969 - the highest categories in rock climbing - KMS and MS, which served as a powerful impetus for the development of sport climbing as an independent sport.
In 1972, at the Olympic Youth Camp during the Munich Olympic Games, the German Alpine Union held a discussion about the inclusion of mountaineering and rock climbing in the Olympic Games program. After a lively discussion, it was established that, unlike mountaineering, sport climbing, carried out according to the rules of the USSR Mountaineering Federation, fully meets all Olympic requirements for new sports.
In 2010, rock climbing was recognized by the IOC as an Olympic sport.
Karate
In a recent presentation to the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, WKF Secretary General Toshihisu Nagura emphasized that karate is a global sport that embodies the traditional Japanese values of Budo, strict discipline and spiritual purity.
Karate is spread all over the world. It is a global sport that transcends nations, regions and races.
Toshihisu Nagura, WKF Secretary General
According to some estimates, more than 100 million people from 190 countries practice karate. And this is noticeably more than in the case of baseball and softball (a total of 65 million people from 141 countries).
Eight years ago, I discussed with my friend, a master of sports in karate and champion of Russia, the chances of karate becoming an Olympic sport. It was hard to believe at the time, because karate sports federations were very divided around the world and could not come to an agreement. But, apparently, they managed to come to an agreement.
Skateboarding
Despite the fact that part of the skateboarding community strongly opposed the inclusion of this sport in the Olympic Games program, explaining that skateboarding is not a sport, and with its inclusion in the Olympic Games it would “lose its spirit of freedom,” it was still accepted .
There are now two skateboarding organizations, but the IOC does not recognize them. The request to include skateboarding in the Olympic Games was submitted by the FIRS (Roller Skating) federation, which many even the most advanced skateboarders have never heard of. Currently, three international organizations are fighting for leadership of the committee.
The SLS Super Crown World Championship is intended to be a qualifying round to select athletes for the Tokyo Olympics.
Surfing
Surfing is much more dependent on external circumstances than any other sport. Bottom, current, swell, wind, ebb and flow - these factors make it impossible to objectively compare the results of athletes.
The future of surfing at the Olympic Games is associated mainly with artificial waves. Here, too, not everything is so simple: there are several artificial wave technologies and each has its own advantages, something new is constantly being developed.
An official application for the inclusion of surfing in the program of the Tokyo Games 2020 was submitted back in 2011, but the main reason for the refusal was the lack of suitable technology that simulates an artificial wave. But now the technology has already been developed, and the possibility of holding world surfing competitions at the Olympic level has become real.
(IOC) on Wednesday included five new sports in the program of the next Summer Olympics 2020 in Tokyo.
The most popular sport among the five included in the Tokyo Games is by far baseball, which last competed at the Olympics in 2008. Why in Asia and not in the USA? It is in this region that the sport has become popular in recent years. As representatives of the organizing committee stated, they have an agreement that all the leading leagues in the world will stop their season for the sake of the Olympics.
The only exception is MLB (Major League Baseball), the oldest professional league and one of the richest leagues in the world. Previously, MLB did not stop its championship during the Olympics, so three of the last five gold medals were won by Cubans. It's hard to believe that MLB players will come to the Olympics, but if it happens, it will be a special moment for the Games.
“Baseball was withdrawn from the Olympic program in 2005 due to the position of the United States, and the return to the program of this undoubtedly very popular sport is an expected and natural event for us. The Russian Federation has a good chance of competing at the 2020 Olympic Games, since in Europe "Our young baseball players take prizes, and when it comes to softball, Russian girls have almost no equal. They do not leave tournaments without medals and regularly become European champions," said Oleg Grankin, president of the Russian Baseball Federation.
Medal chances
According to the President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Alexander Zhukov, among the new sports, Russians have good chances in rock climbing and karate. These two out of five sports have been popular in Russia for a long time, so it is not surprising that they are where we have the best chances for medals.
"This is the best thing that has ever happened to our sport. Yes, we were given the right to be at one Olympics, but tomorrow we will start working to be at the 2024 Olympics, this is just the beginning of a battle that is not over. We have a lot countries are fighting for medals: Japan, Turkey, Iran, Kuwait and others. Russia? Today Russia does not have such a strong team as it had for several years, but everything can change," said the head of the International Karate Federation (WKF) Antonio Espinos.
Life style
Surfing and skateboarding are two lifestyle sports. Their appearance in the Olympic program will help attract more young audiences and become popular. You don’t have to look far for examples - in 1998, snowboarding was included in the program of the Winter Games, which has now become an integral part of the Olympics.
"This is a historic moment for all of surfing, the popularity of our sport is growing every year. The Olympics will be an opportunity for it to open up to the world and gain new fans. Surfing will help make the Tokyo Olympics special," said Fernando Aguerre, president of the International Surfing Association (ISA).
Towards the end of World War II, the United States developed the T13 Beano grenade, which in shape, weight and size was as close as possible to an ordinary baseball. Since almost all American soldiers played baseball as children, it was assumed that they would be able to throw this grenade without special training. T13s were used in the Normandy operation, but what their combat effectiveness turned out to be is not known for certain.
OLYMPIC GAMES
Baseball made its Olympic debut (unofficially) in 1904 at the third Olympics of the modern era. In total, competitions were held at 12 Olympics, the last of which was Beijing. Over the entire period, 17 different teams took part in the competition, three of which - Cuba, Italy and Japan - participated in all official competitions. Baseball was included in the Games program more often than other sports in the status of demonstration performances, but in 1992, at the games in Barcelona, medals were awarded in this sport for the first time.
At the IOC meeting in July 2005, baseball and softball were stripped of their status as Olympic sports, and the decision came into force at the London Olympics in 2012, but in 2016, baseball was returned along with softball to the list of Olympic disciplines.
RUSSIA
The first appearance of baseball in Russia dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, and the new game had its own analogue in the country - Russian lapta, which has been known in Rus' since ancient times and whose rules are reminiscent of baseball. In 1919, exhibition matches were held in several cities of Soviet Russia, but the development of the new sport did not go any further. In the early 1930s, settlers from North America again brought baseball to the USSR. In 1932, the Council for Physical Culture and Sports decided to develop baseball, and in 1936 a manual on baseball rules was published, but in July of the same year the game was banned, and everyone involved in it was repressed.
In the second half of the 1980s, baseball was revived in the USSR. On August 13, 1987, the USSR Baseball, Softball and Russian Basketball Federation was formed, and a year later it joined the International Baseball Federation (IBAF).
Photo - ru.wikipedia.org
Baseball is a team sport played with a baseball and bat. Each individual game involves two teams of nine (sometimes ten) players each.
The object of the game is to score more points/runs than the opposing team. A point is scored when a player on the offensive team runs through each of the bases, square (30 x 30 cm) pads attached to the ground, located at the corners of a 90-foot (27.4 meter) square.
Each game is divided into periods - “innings”, in each of which each team plays once in attack and defense. Each time three offensive players are out, the teams switch positions (thus, there are six outs in each inning - three for each team). Typically a game consists of 9 innings.
If the score is tied at the end of the last inning, additional innings will be played. A baseball match cannot end in a tie; extra innings are scheduled until a winner is determined.