The spectacle of the modern Olympics has captured the imaginations of viewers from across the globe. The latest games, held in Rio de Janeiro has a global audience estimated at 3.6 billion people making it the largest sporting event in the world. The FIFA World Cup football tournament, by comparison, drew in an audience of around 3.57 billion viewers. There is no reason to think that the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics will not also deliver billions of viewers when it is held in Tokyo.
Of course, the viewership will vary wildly depending on the event being staged. It is inevitable that viewership of an event like the 100 meter men’s sprint will draw in more viewers than say the shot put finals. That being said, there are numerous events which will be of great interest to those who enjoy specific skill sets and there are also new sporting codes that will be under the Olympic spotlight for the very first time. These include baseball and softball which return after a 12-year break from Olympic competition. Other sports such as karate, surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing will also be making their debut.
Surfing will present its own unique challenges. The event will be held at Shidashita Beach, 40 miles from Tokyo and the subjective nature of the scoring will provide its own challenges to both competitors and the judges. It will also present challenges as far as network coverage is concerned due to the fact that there is a 16-day window for the event caused by the fickle nature of the waves, it’s a waiting game as far as the conditions for the competition are concerned.
Sports climbing promises to provide a great spectacle for viewers. There will be a number of events testing the competitor’s skills. These will include distance climbed within a certain time limit and head to head competitions pitting one opponent against another in a test of who can ascend a climbing wall fastest.
Karate makes its debut and the competition will be held at the Nippon Budokan which was built to accommodate competitors engaged in the judo competition which was help at the 1964 Tokyo games. there will be sparring competition, as well as scoring those participating on the purity of their Kata (form) demonstrations.
The skateboarding competition is also bound to attract viewers from all over the globe. This competition will be split into two parts – one for ‘street’ style boarding (think of ramps and rails) and the other for demonstrating park skills. The park type competition will be held in what resembles an empty swimming pool – as has become traditional. The U.S. stars such as Nyjah Huston and Tom Schaar will be appearing – while superstar Shaun White is still in the running for the competition. For more information on this event, why not check out Slick Willie’s skateboarding at the 2020 Olympics guide.
Three on three basketball will also feature in the Olympics for the first time.
The new sporting codes will possibly make the Olympics more relevant to a new generation of viewers. It promises to be one of the Olympic spectacles of all time.
The games will start on the 24 July 2020 and run until 9 August 2020. For more information on the various games and events, head over to the official Olympic.org website today.
