Olympics Odds – New Sports for 2024?
It’s official! Tokyo 2020 will be adding baseball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing to its list of events. That’s great news. It’s nice to see the International Olympic Committee branching out and selecting sports we don’t traditionally see on the world’s biggest athletic stage.
With that in mind, let’s look even further forward at which sports could or should find their way into the 2024 games (which will be held in either LA, Budapest, or Paris), along with their odds of cracking the field.
Odds to be included in the 2024 Olympics
Mixed Martial Arts: 1/1
MMA checks most of the boxes the IOC is looking for, especially the world-wide popularity box. Just look at the growth of the UFC. The inherent violence of the sport is the only issue. But Olympic MMA could mirror the old Olympic boxing format, with a focus on point-scoring rather than heavy blows and knockouts.
Squash: 2/1
Squash is one of those sports that is insanely popular in a few countries and pretty much unknown everywhere else. But the Olympics could change all that. With glass walls and cameras mounted around the court, squash is a great spectator sport. Squash has already made many failed attempts to launch itself into the Olympics, perhaps 2024 is its year.
Futsal: 7/3
Futsal, a.k.a. indoor soccer, often gets lost in the shadow of its more popular, richer big brother. But futsal may be a better fit for the Olympics than soccer. It’s faster, higher scoring, and shorter. (The tournament wouldn’t have to start early, like the soccer at Rio.) It’s also played by myriad countries and, since it’s not as established as soccer, there would be no problem convincing the best futsal players in the world to compete.
Ultimate Frisbee: 12/1
The worst thing about Ultimate is the name. If you can get past that, it’s a fascinating sport. It’s fast, visually appealing, and completely intuitive — get the disc to the other teams end zone. There’s probably not enough top-quality competition in the world for it to be an Olympic sport at the moment, but there will be soon enough.
Longboarding: 15/1
First BMX, now skateboarding and surfing. The Olympics are finally taking extreme sports seriously. And how exciting were those BMX races at Rio? Short answer: Very! It seems like only a matter of time until longboarding is added to the list. It’s a highly technical sport that would be similarly captivating and exhilarating to spectators. It’s already hugely popular in North America, all over Europe, and parts of South America (especially Brazil) and only gaining more followers. While it’s optimistic to think 2024 will be the year, mark my words, the time of the board is coming.
Parkour/Free Running: 20/1
Parkour (or free running) takes the precision and athleticism of gymnastics to the streets. It’s currently under the wing of Red Bull, which has grown the sport enormously and hosted competitions all around the world. They have shown that there is a market for this sport beyond those who practice it. The scoring systems etc. still need to be refined, so the IOC isn’t likely to tap it for 2024. But it’s big in France, so if Paris gets the games, it has a shot.
Tug-of-war: 50/1
Believe it or not, from 1900 to 1920, tug-of-war was a steady fixture in the summer Olympics. Sure, that was also when Olympians held down full-time jobs and competed in fifteen other events. Nonetheless, tug-of-war was something society took seriously. And if a man trained hard enough, and did not succumb to scurvy on the boat ride to the games, he could make his country proud by relentlessly tugging on a rope.
I’d like to see a return to simpler times. Does the IOC?
Sepak takraw: 99/1
Take the sport of volleyball and ban the use of hands. Then take away the players and replace them with ninjas. The result? Sepak takraw, a South Asian sport that puts your dread-locked hacky-sacking friends to shame. It’s got the spectator-value of an Olympic event, but not the global popularity (which is baffling to me).
Fierljeppen: 150/1
The long jump and the pole-vault are two of the coolest Olympic events. Why not combine the two?
Fierljeppen may sound like a lamp you would buy at IKEA, but it’s actually an old dutch sport that involves a large pole and an even larger body of water. Fierljeppen athletes (fierljeppeners?) take a long run up like a long jumper, propel themselves into the air like a pole vaulter, and clear the large body of water like a hero.
Bo-Taoshi: 500/1
Bo-Taoshi is an ancient Japanese sport that roughly translates to “pole bring down.” That also seems to be the full extent of the rules. One team protects the pole; the other attacks it. Chaos ensues.
The only draw-back is that the medal ceremony may deplete the world of its precious metals, since each team consists of 75 competitors.
Honorable mentions:
Photo credit: trickofthelight (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/].
Don Aguero is a man of many talents, writing about nearly anything you can put odds to. Don has been writing for SportsBettingDime since 2015, covering sports, entertainment and politics. You name it, he's covered it! He is also a steadfast West Ham fan, and has learned to embrace that suffering.
