Global DJ turned potential Olympic Alpine skier? Meet Jamaica's Benjamin Alexander.

Breaking "pioneer" Alexandra Kachanova - aka Bgirl Vavi - eagerly awaits her sport's Olympic debut.

Bosnian rhythmic gymnast Sara Becarevic embodies the notion of determination and perseverance bringing success against the odds.

After his hat trick leads Team France to a junior world title, field hockey captain Timothee Clement scores best player of the tournament honors.

Australian rising sprinter Rohan Browning takes on a racehorse...and...wins(?).

Sprinter CJ Ujah gets more unwanted scrutiny in the wake of the doping charge threatening his Tokyo 2020 4x100 relay medal.

More sprinting: Andre de Grasse gets the feature treatment in October's View the Vibe.

Can hurdler-turned-bobsledder Lolo Jones find Beijing redemption with an Olympic medal in 2022?

​The Sydney Morning Herald  checks in with BMX racer Saya Sakakibara, still suffering effects from the Tokyo 2020 semifinal crash that ended her gold pursuit.

Top ranked U.S. men's tennis player Reilly Opelka causes a stir with a frank interview ahead of the BNP Paribas Open. Journalists respond.

Need an ease into breaking as an upcoming Olympic sport at Paris 2024? Meet Bgirl Terra.

Ireland's women's field hockey team to get a set of twins on the roster, in Niamh and Michelle Carey.

More field hockey: Will veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh stay with Team India through Paris 2024?

Triathlon Olympic champion Flora Duffy finally gets a hero's welcome in Bermuda.

"It's an honor." Seth Jones looks forward to an Olympic debut with Team USA at Beijing 2022's ice hockey tournament.

Skateboarder Rayssa Leal selects 'a positive contribution to the lives of socioeconomically vulnerable children and adolescents in Brazil' as her VISA Award donation.

Skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin planning a returned attention to speed to start the Olympic season.

Speed skater Shim Suk-Hee dropped (temporarily?) from South Korea's vaunted short track team after abusive text messages revealed.

Ariarne Titmus recognizes her enhanced profile after Tokyo 2020 success, and as she looks toward the next Games.

​Meanwhile, Team Canada plans a program review after rugby sevens women highlight complaints.

Team Great Britain's first world snowboarding champion, Charlotte Bankes, had almost retired before her championship breakthrough this year.

​After a World Championship medal in 2019, boxer Julio Castillo had high hopes for Tokyo 2020. But the pandemic dampened his preparations. He's still training in the sport, though, for more. (in Spanish)

Team India field hockey player Navneet Kaur "will leave no stone unturned to make (the Tokyo 2020 experience) wonderful."

Argentina's veteran Olympic sailor Santiago Lange recognizes the special importance of Tokyo 2020, as he navigates exhausting health protocols.

​Will Australian BMXer Logan Martin translate his "gymnastics on a bike" into Tokyo 2020 gold?

Shooter Derek Burnett joins an exclusive club with his fifth Olympic Games selection for Team Ireland.

Can Katie Talpa and Holly Lloyd Peate make it from Dublin's House of Swag to Paris 2024 in breaking?

Get to know Team USA wrestler Kyle Snyder, For the Win's latest profile in its '23 in 23' series.
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After a friendship across 14 years, Lee So-Hee and Shin Seung-Chan get an Olympic chance together as badminton doubles partners.

With teammate Elise Christie's help, Team Great Britain's Kyle Ross-Waddell bounces back from mental health struggles in short track speedskating.

What will Norwegian rower Olaf Tufte do in his "absurd" seventh Olympics?

Need an inspirational athlete story? Meet Naomi Graham, Tokyo-bound boxer who fought homelessness on her way to the U.S. army and the Olympics.

Just two weeks before her Olympic qualification in a personal best score, heptathlete Annie Kunz was at a low point in her training confidence.

Spanish decathlete Jorge Urena has followed his father into the discipline, and stays close to family as he trains. (in Spanish)

Australian Tokyo-bound discus thrower Matthew Denny knows firsthand how one can turn failure into motivation toward success.

"Strong and resilient" Habitam Alemu shares her countryside-to-elite running background with Spikes.

Can runner Amel Tuka win Bosnia & Herzegovina's first Olympic medal? A nation awaits the answer.

Canoeist Laurence Vincent Lapointe wins Team Canada selection after a, um, unique suspension reprieve.

Team Russia's Andrei Vasilevski joins an elite club for European goalies with the NHL Stanley Cup win.

'A childhood dream': Incoming Bruin Brooklyn Moors will be the eighth Canadian gymnastics Olympian from UCLA since 1984.

At Rio 2016, Kanak Jha was the youngest member of Team USA. Now he's set for a return to Olympic table tennis competition.

Naomi Osaka debits as a Barbie Role Model!

Can 'badass' Skylar Park win Canada's first Olympic title in taekwondo?

Wu Jiaxin takes a remarkable trials qualification score into Tokyo 2020 as the best woman archer for Team China.

Meanwhile, archer Sylwia Zyzsanska enters the record books?

"It's a rad opportunity for me," says surfer Kolohe Andino about competing in the Olympics.

Artistic swimmers Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe take on body shamers as they train for Tokyo 2020.

​Team USA's skateboarding team for Tokyo 2020 includes Leo Baker and Alexis Sablone, both making marks for LGBTQ representation in the sport.

The duo are part of the largest-ever number of publicly out athletes at an Olympics this summer.

Lasha Shavdatuashvili just loves judo, and is ready to fight for more after medaling in the last two Games.

Loena Hendrickx is targeting Beijing 2022 after a fifth place World Championship finish, despite two years of injuries.

A number of sports will debut as Olympic sports across Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, a few strikingly more unconventional than those we're used to seeing at the Summer Games. While some newer sports have integrated well into the program in recent editions, the rapid change brings to question, why are sports not "demonstrated" first?

A Long History of Demonstration

Sports looking to win a coveted place on the Olympic sports program, and with it perceived precious validation as a sport that matters globally, used to have an opportunity at the Games as a 'demonstration sport', presented as a scheduled event but usually without official medals or records. Demonstration sports were first officially included alongside the main Olympic Games agenda at Stockholm 1912. Most Games editions through Barcelona 1992 had at least one demonstration sport.

While some Games chose events with particular local flavor (e.g. basque pelota at Barcelona 1992), the practice mostly served as sort of a testing ground for sports seeking official inclusion. Baseball was "demonstrated" five times before official inclusion in 1992 and for the next four editions. Taekwondo was demonstrated twice before its upgrade. Tennis, badminton, handball, volleyball, canoeing, and women's judo all were demonstration sports before their own inclusions in today's official summer program. On the winter side, curling, freestyle skiing, and short track speed skating all had their turn as demonstration sports.

The idea of a sport being 'demonstrated' tested an event for TV and fan appeal, and whether or not the sport 'fit' into an Olympics setting, or maybe whether just whether it was safe or not. But since holding demonstration events usually meant adding equivalent operational expense as if they were official, the International Olympic Committee discontinued them.

Now, without a demonstration step, sports and event disciplines can become an official Olympic sport without any similar testing, or proof of appeal on an Olympic level. And combined with a new vision of "increasing its appeal to younger sports fans", this has meant new sports being seemingly suddenly added that may be jarring to Olympic purists.

Some changes have integrated well: beach volleyball (officially added at Atlanta 1996) and rugby sevens (Rio 2016) have been marked successes. Snowboarding (Nagano 1998) is a massive hit today, despite initial concern, proving any purists' hesitations wrong.

Can Afghani break dancer Manizha Talash persevere through social and competitive challenges to make a breakthrough debut in breaking at Paris 2024?

Can the "quad doctor" Valtter Virtanen finally reach an Olympic debut in figure skating, while working as a medical doctor?

Peder Kongshaug is a World Junior Champion now making a mark on the senior ranks for Norway's speed skating team.

Colby Stevenson is a rising star in freestyle skiing, continuing a remarkable comeback from a near-disastrous car accident in 2016.