End of the story. Those missed from the list of additional sports for the Paris 2024 Games can draw a line under their hopes of forcing the door of the program. A definitive trait.
The IOC authoritatively announced the end of the race on Friday March 8. Kit McConnell, the Olympic organization's sports director, told theAFP the rules of the game. They might seem vague at the start of the process. They are no longer. “ Once the COJO has transmitted its proposal for additional sports, it is final, he explained from Lausanne. If the session approves this list, the four sports will be admitted provisionally, pending their final validation in December 2020, in view of the experience of the Tokyo Olympics. The IOC cannot add a 5th sport either, but it does have the power to remove one. »
The message is clear. It is directly addressed to the most offensive failures from the list of four additional sports (climbing, skateboarding, surfing and breakdancing) presented on February 21 by the COJO Paris 2024. At the head, karate, of which a delegation of leaders requested accounts to the Parisian team, Wednesday March 6, during a meeting at the Paris headquarters of the organizing committee.
The list of additional sports is therefore not definitive. It can be reduced, but in no case increased. And it seems very unlikely that the IOC will decide to withdraw one of the four sports chosen by Paris 2024 to replace it with another more to its liking.
On this issue, the IOC gives the impression of deciding the rules of the game while moving forward. It’s up to the organizing committee to decipher the process to make its choice without straying from the road. It’s up to the candidate sports to guess the best strategy.
For the Tokyo 2020 Games, the IOC let the Japanese choose as many sports as they wanted, without worrying too much about athlete quotas. For Paris, he was more directive, requiring us to stay within the limit of 10.500 competitors. What will he do for Los Angeles 2028? Everything is possible.
Friday March 8, the four sports proposed by Paris 2024 passed their first stage without incident. They obtained the green light from the Olympic program commission, chaired by the Italian Franco Carraro. We expected it. They will then have to be dubbed by the executive commission, at its next meeting, scheduled for March 26 to 28 in Lausanne. Unless there is a huge surprise, its members will validate it without prolonging the debate.
The executive commission will then submit “ a recommendation " at the IOC session, meeting at the end of June 2019 in Lausanne. Once again, the obstacle appears to be without real danger. But the final decision will be made after the Tokyo 2020 Games, where surfing, climbing and skateboarding, already chosen as additional sports, will have to pass their passing exam. The race is not over yet. But we know all the actors.
