Search the Community

Last week we looked at the event changes between the 2020 and the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. The other notable change ahead of those games will be the number of athletes competing. Totallympics takes a closer look. Using the qualification documents, the 2020 Olympics had an expected athlete quota of 11,114 (the final number was higher due to some sports having more athletes than expected qualify and the IOC allowing more athletes to compete at the games due to COVID-19, court appeals and via the refugee team). The 2024 Olympics is set to have a total of 10,500 athletes, a decrease of 614 quotas. As baseball/softball and karate were not selected as host selected sports, the athlete quotas were completely removed. This saw a reduction of 234 and 80 quotas respectively. However, with the other host selected sports seeing an increase in athlete quotas, this reduction had a net effect of -242. The remaining 72 quotas were split between the four sports with breaking getting the most quotas (32 athletes) as the sport is set to make its Olympic debut. Sport climbing, the only returning sport to get an increase in its total events sees a notable increase of 28 athletes while skateboarding and surfing will see increases of 8 and 4 respectively. Of the 28 core sports, all of them either saw them maintaining their 2020 quotas or saw an overall decrease. Cycling is a bit unique as while the overall sport saw a decrease of quotas (-14 athletes), the BMX freestyle (+6) and track cycling (+1) disciplines saw an increase of athletes, but were offset by a decrease in mountain biking (-4) and road cycling (-17). Among the core sports, athletics will experience the largest decrease with 90 fewer athletes expected to attend the 2024 games. Due to the removal of four events, weightlifting also has a significant decrease with 76 fewer athletes while aquatics rounds out the top 3 with 62 fewer athletes (-8 in artistic swimming, -6 in open water swimming, -26 in swimming and -22 in water polo). A summary of the quota changes can be seen in the table below. Of the sports which lost athlete quotas most of them only saw losses of less than 6% of their total quotas from 2020. The two exceptions were boxing and weightlifting. Both sports have recently lost favour in the eyes of the IOC. Even after adjusting weightlifting having fewer events, both sports will experience a decrease of over 10% of their 2020 total. While these athlete quota cuts were made by the IOC as a cost saving measure, they remain quite controversial. Detractors argue that it is not in the spirit of the Olympics and that it would make nations with smaller teams even smaller. What do you think, is the cost saving measures a necessary evil or are there other ways the IOC could cut costs?

Cuba has a storied history of success in the Olympic Games. Since its Games debut at Paris 1900, its much-vaunted boxers have won 73 medals (second only to the United States), and its fabled baseball program has won three of five golds (and won silver the other two times). Outside of those two signature sports, Cuba has made its mark in other sports, notably track & field, judo, wrestling, and even fencing. The women's volleyball team won three straight golds between 1992 and 2000, with a bronze in 2004. At Barcelona 1992, Cuba hit its high point in the medal count - 31 total, and fifth place in the medal count. Those were the Games of high jumper Javier Sotomayor, boxer Felix Savon, and middle-distance runner Ana Quirot. Boxers, including Savon, won nine of 12 possible medals (including seven gold). Women's volleyball started their three-gold streak. Judo and wrestling saw gold medal wins, too. Cuba won the inaugural baseball tournament. For the next four Games, the island nation experienced a consistent level of high performance: 25 medals at Atlanta 1996, 29 at Sydney 2000, 27 at Athens 2004, and 30 at Beijing 2008. Those years, there was an admirable sense of Cuba being able to 'punch above its weight' in its success. Despite increasing isolation as a lone socialist state burdened by economic sanctions, its athletic programs remained a vibrant, vital area of showcase pride for the nation. But the last two Olympics has seen its star power ebb. Cuba managed only 15 medals at London 2012 and 11 at Rio 2016. As well, after reaching second in the Pan American Games medal table in 2011, Cuba dropped to fourth in 2015 and sixth in 2019. And now, and despite its legendary aura in the sport, Cuba will not qualify for Tokyo 2020's baseball tournament. Given its recent slide - in the WBSC Premier12 event in 2019, Cuba ranked tenth and last alongside Netherlands and Puerto Rico - the result in qualifying isn't too surprising. But the Cuban absence will be noticed given the team's legacy in the sport. For sentiment's sake, one hopes Cuban baseball doesn't follow that lead and can make a comeback in time for Los Angeles 2028. But history is not a promising guide. That women's volleyball team of the mid-to-late 1990s suffered a similar fall. After just missing the podium in fourth place at Beijing 2008, the team has failed to make an Olympics since. They placed 21st and 22nd in the last two World Championships, and came nowhere near Tokyo 2020 qualification after finishing sixth in the 2019 NORCECA Championship, with the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico ahead and taking bragging rights for current Caribbean power. As far as the nation's boxers, they will again be standard bearers, with Tokyo 2020 qualification in each of the eight men's weight classes (but note, no women's). Collectively, the Tokyo-bound team already has six Olympic medals dating from as far back as Beijing 2008 - a sign of longevity, but also of a lack of younger athletes breaking through. Judo, wrestling, and track & Field again promise the best chance for medal support to boxing this summer, but the nation will probably be hard-pressed to significantly improve its results from Rio 2016. Cuba's sport prowess has certainly diminished. Has the difficulty in maintaining a consistently strong sports development feeder system in its closed society finally taken a toll? There's a good opportunity for a socio-economic study in the question. In the meantime, this summer's Games quickly approach. Can Cuba again rise to consistent sporting heights? This opinion was originally published on gamesandrings.com on June 2, 2021.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Executive Board (EB) has approved the inclusion of E-Sports as a discipline of baseball and softball, setting the stage for future official E-Baseball and E-Softball international competitions and World Cups/Championships. The WBSC Executive Board passed a resolution formally adopting E-Sports as the virtual version of the sport, along with Baseball5 - a five-on-five street version of the sport - and agreed to notify all National Federations of this decision. Following E-Sports’ integration into the WBSC Statutes, which will be put forward for approval to the WBSC Congress in 2022, the world governing body will establish the rules and regulations for the governance of E-Baseball and E-Softball competitions, in addition to preparing for the launch of the WBSC’s first E-Game next year. It’s unclear when the first baseball-themed video game was released. Most sources seem to suggest some time in the 1970s, but even that remains disputed. What is clear however, is that baseball-themed video-games have remained widely produced and played around the world. Some popular titles in the genre include, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s MLB The Show franchise, and MLB Advanced Media’s R.B.I Baseball franchise. Baseball also featured in the popular Nintendo video game Wii Sports. Interest in baseball-themed video games hasn’t gone unnoticed by the WBSC, with President Riccardo Fraccari stating, “The WBSC looks forward to more progressive innovation in the dynamic and youth-focused space of E-Sports, which will potentially expand the reach of our sport to millions of gamers and fans. Advancing future-oriented initiatives such as online/virtual competitions will support the development of baseball and softball -- and all disciplines under them -- for many years to come." The World Baseball Softball Confederation isn’t alone in looking towards E-Sports as a means and medium to further grow their sport. With the Covid-19 pandemic bringing most international sports to halt, many international federations have looked to the virtual world to promote and grow their sports. The Union Cycliste International (UCI) recently held their inaugural Cycling Esports World Championship, which featured 54 women’s and 78 men’s riders respectively. World Sailing sanctioned an entire eSaling World Cup, and held an eSailing World Championship earlier this year. The Federation Internationale De Ski recently announced its own ESports Alpine World Ski Championships, which will be held in February 2021. The importance of establishing a virtual version of baseball/softball was underscored by Fraccari, who stated, “The welcoming of E-Sports into the WBSC family comes at a critical time, considering the fast-evolving digital world in which we live and the ongoing global pandemic.” The affect of the Covid-19 pandemic on baseball/softball has been substantial. The WBSC have had to cancel and postpone multiple age level World Cups that were due to held this year. The postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games has also delayed the return of baseball and softball to the Olympic program. Notably, baseball was one of the sports included on the Tokyo 2020 Official Video Game. The World Baseball Softball Confederation will be hoping that more attention is brought to the sport as a consequence of its inclusion at the Olympic Games. Softball is scheduled to be the first sport to get underway in Tokyo, with the first match scheduled to begin at 9:00 (local time) on July 21, 2020.