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Posted: 2017-06-10 00:14:43

Posted June 10, 2017 10:14:43

The Tokyo Olympics will feature three-on-three basketball after the IOC added the sport to the 2020 program to give the games a more youthful and urban appeal.

In another move toward street sports, BMX Freestyle cycling will also join the Olympics for the first time, among a net increase of 15 gold medals for a 321-event program.

However, the IOC cut 285 athlete places from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, with track and field losing 105 spots.

The overall athlete quota for 28 core sports will be 10,616 athletes in Tokyo, including 64 in three-on-three basketball.

There will be eight teams in each of the men's and women's tournaments of the half-court format, which was introduced at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.

"The dream of a path from the streets to the Olympic Games has become reality for all the basketball community," said Patrick Baumann, the secretary general of basketball governing body FIBA.

An urban Tokyo venue for three-on-three basketball could be announced when the IOC executive board meets again in Lausanne on July 9-10, IOC sports director Kit McConnell said.

Track cycling will add men's and women's madison races in 2020 — in a velodrome about 130 kilometres outside Tokyo — and swimming will add men's 800-metre freestyle and women's 1,500-metre freestyle events.

Swimming also gets a 4x100-metre mixed medley relay among a broad increase in mixed gender events, including a 4x400 mixed relay on the track.

"I am delighted that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will be more youthful, more urban and will include more women," IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement.

The IOC expects women to account for 48.8 per cent of the athletes in Tokyo. Events confirmed on Friday are in addition to decisions last August to include sports climbing, skateboarding, surfing, baseball and softball and karate in the Tokyo program.

Among sports losing athlete places, weightlifting will have 64 fewer in Tokyo after reporting dozens of doping cases in retested samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Games.

Wrestling will lose 56 places, sailing and shooting will each lose 30 and swimming will have 22 fewer.

How exactly to cut 105 athletes from track and field will be discussed with the IAAF at its world championships in London in August, McConnell said. He noted that some sprint relay places typically went unused.

The IOC has also formally proposed picking the 2024 and 2028 Olympic host cities at the same time this year.

Los Angeles and Paris now seem certain to both be awarded a Summer Games in September as the IOC tries to safeguard its signature event for the next decade.

"This represents a golden opportunity for the Olympic Games and for the IOC," Mr Bach said at a news conference after an executive board meeting.

The widely expected proposal from the board did not address which city would go first and stage the 2024 Olympics.

A meeting of the full IOC from July 11-12 in Lausanne will be asked to ratify the board's request. The 95-strong membership seems unlikely to block a policy that could help define Mr Bach's eight-year first presidential term at its midpoint.

A final vote to confirm the hosting order should take place on September 13 in Lima, Peru, at the regularly scheduled IOC annual meeting.

Paris and LA bid leaders both issued statements welcoming the IOC board decision, and could yet agree how to split the games in the coming weeks.

Mr Bach said there had been talks but not negotiations with officials from Los Angeles and Paris, which he described as "two such great cities, two such great countries, having two candidatures who are really enthusiastic".

Paris has emerged as the favourite for 2024, and bid leaders insist they can focus only on that option. Public comments from LA bid leaders have been more flexible and acknowledged talks to explore who could be persuaded to accept 2028.

AP

Topics: sport, olympics-summer, basketball, japan, france, united-states

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