After the IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne last week, there were emotional scenes at the International Surfing Association – as their presence at the 2020 Olympic Games was all but confirmed.

The Executive Board unanimously agreed to accept the proposal to add five new sports to the Games in 2020: softball/baseball, sports climbing, skateboarding, Karate and surfing.

 Although their inclusion has to be formally ratified in Rio at the IOC congress, Fernando Aguerre, President of the ISA, was delighted to see his sport on the brink of a historic entry into the Games.

 “We’ve been through a few very intense years…. We have done a lot of work; we think we are a sport that could add a lot of value to the Games, especially the Tokyo Games, but in general to the Olympic movement, we represent a lot of the youth values that are important to the Olympic movement.”

It is nothing less than a personal triumph for Aguerre. He has led the ISA since 1994, putting his heart and soul into including the sport in the Games. Many in his sport thought it would never happen, but the Argentine has finally secured the Olympic berth he had fought so hard for. He was fighting for Olympic inclusion as early as the 2000 Games.

Now surfing is all but included, the work begins to get the world’s best surfers on-board.Surfing boasts some genuine world class talent, with household names like Kelly Slater and Mick Fanning. Aguerre is working with the privately owned World Surf League to ensure the sport’s top stars will be coming to Tokyo.

 

“The ownership and the CEO [of the WSL] committed themselves to bringing the best athletes. Our idea is not just about the performance, but it is performance and universality. We are prepared to bring the top stars, but also to be sure that we also have the diversification, so there will be African surfers, American surfers, South Pacific surfers, Asian and European Surfers.”

“The proposal for Tokyo is 20 male and 20 female. Most likely there will be qualifiers around the world, as I said there will be representation from different continents and regions, it will be a very diverse Games. Remember when you think about surfing you think about Australia, Brazil, the US as they are the big surfing nations, in terms of numbers its true. But then there are a lot of other nations that people may not think about such as South Africa, France, Portugal, Costa Rica, and Peru. They may not have a thousand great surfers, but they do have a few great surfers.”

Surfing is coming to Tokyo, and could well be staying for a very long time.

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The Tokyo 2020 organising committeehave announced a “Tokyo 2020 Japan House” at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The house will be a national hospitality centre to provide a glimpse of how the 2020 games will look and feel.

Open on August 5-21 during the Olympic Games and on September 7-18 during the Paralympic Games, allergy the Tokyo 2020 Japan House will welcome athletes, members of the Olympic Family, members of the media and individual visitors.

Read more HERE. 

 

doctor “sans-serif”; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;”>Offering Fans of the World’s 4th Largest Sporting Event Live Match Statistics And Audio Feed

New York-based digital consulting firm Omnigon announced the release of the third and final phase of the official 2015 Rugby World Cup (RWC2015) mobile app.

The last phase is now available in advance of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, discount kicking off September 18 at Twickenham. 

The usage rate of this year’s Rugby World Cup app is expected to shatter previous records and is already off to a huge start with hundreds of thousands of downloads for the first two phases of the app.

The final phase enables fans around the world to immerse themselves in the RWC2015 experience and allow them to share the tournament buzz with fellow fans whether they are attending matches or viewing the action at home or on the go.

Fans will be able to view live and post-match stats for all matches including carries made, prescription meters made, clean breaks, tackles success  and tackles made, scrum success and scrum made and time of possession.

Other features of the app include:

– Live match audio streaming

– Live expert blogging during matches

– Pre-match stats including:

– Last 3 meetings (with final score) for each team

– Games played, wins, losses, draws for both teams internationally

– World Rank of Team

– Social Media Rank of Team

– Full fixtures and results for each team

– Video highlights of each match

– In-venue messaging and offers

Social Media hub featuring overall RWC2015 streams, Webb Ellis Trophy Tour and all team and match based chatter

“Omnigon and World Rugby have worked closely over the last year to develop a groundbreaking mobile app experience to be shared with the tens of millions of Rugby fans around the world,” said David Nugent, Chief Commercial Officer, Omnigon.

“The app is designed to engage and unite fans digitally and socially. We are excited to provide the worldwide Rugby community with one of the most compelling, interactive and informative experiences to date.”

The app, which is available in English, Spanish, French, and Japanese, provides fans with all the latest news and information on RWC2015 including dates, venues, ticket information, trophy tour details, matches, pools and teams. 

Fans can also view archival World Cup videos and participate in trivia quizzes against fellow fans.  Additionally, the app delivers specific location-based notifications native to the app holder. The app is available for iOS and Android smartphones internationally at Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

With 80 countries competing for the 20 world cup spots, viewers in more than 205 countries are expected to view RWC2015. The 2011 tournament had a cumulative world television audience of almost four billion viewers.  

 

By Christian Radnedge

Sergey Bubka has promised to hold a review of the world of athletics as he launched his manifesto for the presidency of the International Association of Athletics Federations this week.

The Ukrainian Olympic Committee president set out his plans should he be elected in August including the issue of ‘selling’ the sport to young people.

The plan to reach young people was evident in the manner of his manifesto launch, as he did it via a Google Hangout session broadcast live on YouTube on Wednesday.

Opening the session, he said: “We are very fortunate to be the No1 Olympic sport. We are a strong and unique family and it’s my intention to overcome some challenges [such as] how we can engage with the youth and bring them into athletics.

“I consider this to be a very important part of our successful future.”

Bubka goes up against Seb Coe in the race for IAAF president, as the current title holder Lamine Diack steps down following 16 years in charge.

And Bubka stressed the importance of working with national associations to implement effective and wide-ranging development programmes and financial support.

“Strong national associations mean a strong IAAF,” he added.

Last month Bubka’s team announced that he would push for a review of athletics, titled Vision 2025 – not unlike the Agenda 2020 review undertaken by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, the results of which were ratified by the IOC in December.

IOC member Bubka expanded on his plans saying: “The most intensive review of international athletics ever conducted should be done. We must review all aspects and consider what should be done anew.

“We should open the forum for everyone interested in athletics to give their thoughts, their ideas and direct us in which way we can develop a common future.

“I would create special working groups dedicated to different subjects, engage the national federations, our experts, our athletics partners and sponsors in a big discussion to produce the findings and recommendations.

“Then we will present these to an extraordinary congress to make decisions and move to the next level, the next step, to build a successful future for our lovely sport.”

However, Bubka pledged that he would resist any attempt from the IOC to trim any athletics events for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

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