IOC meetings took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board agreed to add three sports to the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Buenos Aires 2018 Sports Programme: Dance Sport, Karate and Sport Climbing.

A Hint of What’s to Come
The decision to add Sport Climbing to YOG Buenos Aires 2018 comes only months after the inclusion of Sport Climbing to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The official announcement on the IOC website states the following reasons for the decision:

“The three new sports reflect the IOC’s and Buenos Aires 2018’s shared goal of building youth engagement, and thus represent a mix of emerging, universal and urban sports with a significant youth appeal. While Dance Sport is a completely new event to the Olympic programme, Karate and Sport Climbing will be a teaser of what’s to come in 2020 at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and will strengthen the Youth Olympic Games reputation to act as an incubator and as a place of innovation for the Olympic Movement. With complete gender equality achieved for the first time at an Olympic event at Buenos Aires 2018, the three new sports will also feature equal numbers of men and women.”

IFSC President Marco Scolaris added, “In the last months after Rio, far from the lights, we have worked hard on this and here is the result. We are very, very happy that Sport Climbing will also be included in the program in Buenos Aires at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018. Thanks to all the IFSC Team who supported this new climb and achievement. Keep climbing!”

Format
These three sports are in addition to the 28 sports currently on the programme for the third summer of YOG. The Sport Climbing event will be a combined event of the three disciplines (Bouldering, Lead, Speed) for both males and females. Stay tuned to the IFSC website for further details on the format.

INFO: IFSC