Strategy on Additional Games

While the world was cerebrating advent of Rio de Janeiro Olympic, Japan was negotiating for changing rules of Olympic for next event in Tokyo four years later. International Olympic Committee decided on Wednesday to add five sport games on the list of Tokyo Olympic 2020. New menu included baseball/softball, karate, skateboard, sports climbing and surfing. Hidden interests of both IOC and Tokyo Olympic Organization Committee were reflected on it.

IOC upheld addition of new games with request of host country in its reform plan called Agenda 2020. Concerned by decrease of cities to run for the host of Olympic, IOC introduced new system to urge candidacy. Boston in United States and Hamburg in Germany actually had to cancel its candidacy for Olympic 2024, facing firm opposition of their residents. Tokyo became the first case for testing of viability of Agenda 2020.

IOC wanted to add skateboard, sports climbing and surfing to earn more money with enhanced popularity. For a great shock for IOC, ABC TV Network suffered from the red on its balance in Vancouver Olympic 2010 for the first time in the history of Olympic broadcasting business. Declining popularity of young agers caused apathetic attitude to Olympic games. Strategy of IOC was simple: Add popular games! Broadly known in X-Games with such a star player as Shaun White, Skateboard was chosen as the main engine for selling Olympic. Sports climbing and surfing were picked with mostly the same reason.

Japan wanted to earn as much medals as possible in Tokyo Olympic, possibly because it would generate nationalism among the people in Japan. Baseball or softball team of Japan is on the top level in the world, -- the Japanese believes in it at least. If major leaguers do not participate in the event, Japan would be one of the most hopeful nations for gold medal. With small numbers of country to send team, Japan also expects victory in softball. Needless to say, karate is a martial art invented in Japan. That maneuver may not match the spirit of sportsmanship, however.

So how much does it cost for those additional games, anyway? At the point of inviting Olympic to Tokyo, estimated cost was ¥734 billion. With upsurge of price of construction materials or personnel cost, the estimation was raised to ¥2 trillion. The additional games will increase 474 Olympic players in Tokyo. Japan’s strategy for increasing gold medals has not counted on that negative aspect, which has been the greatest reason for the unpopularity in inviting Olympic.