Climbing, surfing and skateboarding debuted in Tokyo last year. A success for these disciplines that young people (and TVs) like. It’s not for nothing that the IOC has confirmed them all for the Paris 2026 Olympics: especially surfing and skating are loved by Generation Z and have great appeal on social media. For this reason, in just over two years there will also be breakdance. The IOC looks to the future and is increasingly struggling to defend historical disciplines such as weightlifting, boxing, the modern pentathlon which are still in doubt for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Boxing should be saved, Bach rightly defends it because it is a sport loved and practiced even in the poorest countries: but it has experienced a scandal with the International Federation and is now trying to start anew from new foundations. The same with the weights: another historical discipline, upset by corruption and doping. Now there is a new international federation with a secretary general and treasurer, Antonio Urso, of great moral depth. He can save himself but perhaps he will have to reduce the categories and the number of participants so as not to overwhelm the Olympic programme. The pentathlon is not widespread now, it is expensive: it was above all a military discipline, outdated by the times. The rules are changing, eliminating equestrianism, a source of controversy, but many at the IOC would like to cancel it from the programme: it can only be saved if the Olympic Committee contributes to the costs (the Americans are very careful on that front…). The pentathlon is mainly defended by Samaranch junior, vice president of the International Federation and possible candidate for president after the Bach era. Skate, climbing and surfing will be confirmed for LA 2028 while there are already other disciplines on the waiting list, hoping to stay or enter the Olympic program. They are cricket, kickboxing, breaking (which debuts in Paris), baseball and softball, lacrosse (widespread in US colleges), karate (not in Paris), squash, motorsport and flag football (a sort of “flag grab”). Baseball and softball have a very good chance of staying at the Games (they were excluded from London 2012 and Rio 2016 while they were there last year in Tokyo 2020). Kickboxing is spreading all over the world and has never been a part of the Games. The only appearance of cricket instead was in Paris 1900 but now it is so popular in many countries especially in the Commonwealth, including Australia, and could therefore be part of the Brisbane 2032 program. Other sports are on the waiting list and they hope to one day be part of the Olympic Games: among these also padel and bowls. But the competition is very strong.
Abodi opens Champions table football: “Fan of traditional sports”
“I’m a fan of traditional games and sports.” The international table football competition of the Champions League kicked off today with cheering from the minister of sport, Andrea Abodi. “My presence – he said – bears witness to the closeness to the sports that Figest represents and I hope that we can rediscover the values and importance of traditional disciplines which, in my opinion, help to socialize and improve the quality of life. Today I am in a hurry to play because a minister as well as preaching must also play sports”. In the morning, Abodi took the field in the final of a five-a-side football tournament, at the Aniene club, as captain of the ‘Celani’ team, defeated 5-1 by the ‘Picciotti’. 12 nations and 230 athletes take part in the table football Champions, promoted by Figest, the Italian Federation of Traditional Games and Sports, and organized in collaboration with the LICB, the Italian Table Football League, and will be held until tomorrow (Sunday 20 November) at the Fib technical center in via Fiume Bianco in Rome. The opening ceremony was attended by the secretary general of CONI, Carlo Mornati, the national president of FIGeST, Enzo Casadidio, the president of the Italian Bocce Federation, Giunio De Sanctis and the president of Itsf, the International Table Soccer Federation, Farid Lounas. “Table football finally has a home under the aegis of the Federation of Traditional Games and Sports – concluded Mornati – Only regulated sport can have a future”.
