Syracuse

The sports programme at the Olympic Games reflects the context of an era. It often reveals, and sometimes anticipates, the aspirations of society. In the last few decades, the IOC has been particularly interested in rejuvenating the Olympic programme and rethinking how competitions and audiences meet the interest of the youth of its time.

Urban sports are sports practices that broke away from traditional sports and spread internationally in the 1960s and 1970s. Once “underground”, and now “mainstream”, their inclusion in the Olympic Games marks a new stage in their evolution.

Their path for inclusion in the Olympic programme started with the creation of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2010, where the sports programme is more flexible, allowing new sports or events and visitor experiences to be tested, serving ultimately as a “laboratory” for the Olympic Games. For example, in Singapore 2010, for its first edition, the YOG hosted 3x3 basketball. In Nanjing 2014, a non-competition venue, the Sports Lab, was introduced, offering skateboarding and sport climbing demonstrations by top athletes.

In December 2014, the IOC approved Olympic Agenda 2020, in which one of its 40 recommendations was decisive for the inclusion of urban sports. This recommendation meant that the number of sports at the Games is no longer limited to 28, officially opening the door for the introduction of new sports.

During the YOG Buenos Aires 2018, an innovative project, the Urban Park, offered a complete experience to spectators. They could watch competitions, attend cultural events and concerts, and follow initiations and demonstrations. Among the many new features, we can highlight the appearance of BMX freestyle, breaking and sport climbing.

The meeting of two worlds long considered antagonistic started for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 with the debut of 3X3 basketball, BMX freestyle, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing, and will continue at Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028. Even if it is still too early to observe all the effects of the presence of urban sports side by side with the more traditional sports at the Olympic Games, it is possible to already see a few: recognising and legitimising the urban sports, many of which had been considered as simple leisure activities practised by “outsiders”, promoting the development of sports infrastructure and empowering women in these sports. For urban sports, being part of the Olympic Games marks a new stage in their evolution.

To dive deeper into this topic, we recommend starting your research with the selection of publications and links on this page, among which we highlight “Action sports and the Olympic Games” by Belinda Wheaton and Holly Thorpe and “Free sports: organizational evolution from participatory activities to Olympic sports” by Mikhail Batuev.

We also recommend you consult our dedicated ZOOM IN page on the Olympic programme for complementary resources.

Of course, this page contains just a selection of the resources available on this wide-ranging topic, so be sure to check out the link at the bottom of the page to the full list of resources.