#ICYMI: Gender Equality at Dakar 2022; Russia Scores SportAccord

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A First for Gender Equality at Dakar 2022

(ATR) The IOC Executive Board officially approved the Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games sport and event program on the first day of its meeting in Lausanne on Tuesday.

Full gender equality, in terms of not only the number of male and female athletes, but also representation in each sport and event will be achieved for the first time in Olympic history.

The five new sports approved for the Dakar YOG program are skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing, and breaking, all four of which are also on the Paris 2024 program. The fifth new sport is karate, which is in the Tokyo 2020 program but not Paris 2024. These join the initial 28 sports already on the program.

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Russia Scores Third SportAccord

(ATR) The 2021 edition of SportAccord heads to Russia, just as new sanctions may hit Russian sport.

Organizers of the annual convention for international sports federations announced this weekend that Ekaterinburg will host the 2021 event. Beijing is the site of the 2020 meeting.

Located 1800km east of Moscow, Ekaterinburg is Russia’s fourth largest city. It will be the third time for Russia to host SportAccord. St. Petersburg was first in 2013, Sochi hosted the 2015 event.

The 2021 SportAccord is scheduled for May 23 to 28. The IEC Ekaterinburg-Expo convention center is the venue.

"The beautiful city of Ekaterinburg will be an ideal host for the 19th edition of SportAccord," says a statement from Raffaele Chiulli, president SportAccord and stakeholder Global Association of International Sports Federations.

"This will allow the world of sport to come together for the third SportAccord World Sport & Business Summit in the sport loving country of Russia, facilitating unity, friendship and building joint bridges for athletes and the future development of sport," says Chiulli.

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Tokyo 2020: The Heat is On

(ATR) The venue change for the marathon and race walk events is now official. The IOC Executive Board ratified the switch from Tokyo to Sapporo, a move taken as a countermeasure to concerns about heat and athlete safety.

IOC President Thomas Bach initiated the push to move the venue for the road racing events after watching the troubles encountered in September during the Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar. A number of competitors needed medical care due to heat, even though the events were scheduled for midnight.

The schedule for the events in Sapporo was also approved at today’s meeting of the EB in Lausanne. Race walking events will take place August 6 and 7. The women’s marathon is set for August 8 and the men’s marathon on August 9, the closing day of the Olympics. The marathon start time both days is 0700.

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Surf, Netball y Fisicoculturismo en Juegos Panama 2022

(ATR) El Comité Ejecutivo de la Organización Deportiva Centroamericana y del Caribe (ODECABE) aprobó la inclusión de 3 nuevos deportes para sus juegos de Panamá 2022 durante su primera reunión presencial luego de su elección hace un mes.

El organismo presidido por Luis Mejía, miembro del COI y presidente del Comité Olímpico Dominicano, informó que se aceptaron los deportes de Netball, Surf y Fisiculturismo. Netball un deporte de mucho arraigo y crecimiento en las islas del Caribe; Surf un deporte que fue muy exitoso en los pasados juegos Panamericano de Lima 2019 y de mucha práctica en Centroamérica; y fisiculturismo, un deporte que también estuvo presente en el calendario panamericano y de arraigo mundial.

El Comité Ejecutivo también estableció que el 31 de enero de 2020 es la fecha límite para la presentación de candidaturas de ciudades para albergar los Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe 2026 y los Juegos de Playa 2021. Para ambos eventos ya hay ciudades postulantes; en el primer caso León de Guanajuato en México y para el segundo Santa Marta en Colombia, que albergó los Juegos Bolivarianos en 2017.

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