"We warmly welcome our first Observers,” Patrick Baumann, the president of GAISF, said in a statement. "This is an exciting time for them and for us and we will do everything within our remit to help them realize their full potential as International Federations within the global sport’s family and, one day, maybe become part of the Olympic program.”
Baumann added: "The new sports debuting at Tokyo 2020 and at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics are evidence that the pathway is there.”
Joining the program in Tokyo in two years will be softball, karate, surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and baseball, the games’ second shot at Olympic status. These sports were chosen, especially skateboarding and sport climbing, in part to reflect the changing interest in younger athletes and the worldwide popularity of these sports.
"Through these additional events, the Tokyo 2020 Games aims to inspire new generations and become a turning point and a model for future Olympic Games,” Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, said in a statement.
Under the GAISF, observer status allows new sport to grow its base while being guided by the federation toward the requirements of membership, such as receiving the required recognitions by National Olympic Committees, increasing their membership and becoming compliant with the regulations of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Before anything else happens, poker -and the other disciplines- needs to be practiced by men in 75 countries on four continents and by women in 40 countries on three continents to be considered for the Olympics.
Besides these stipulations, poker may face the same challenge imposed on chess by the International Olympic Committee with its ban on purely "mind sports.”
Source: GMB / Fox News
