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.

Klete Keller: A star swimming Olympian is caught on camera as taking part of the mob insurrection at the U.S. capitol.

She's back. Mikaela Shiffrin's slalom win this past weekend puts her third on the all-time World Cup win list, and is her 100th podium finish.

Star cyclist Peter Sagan not committing to the Olympics this year, prioritizing the Tour de France in 2021.

Get used to it: Australia's breaking stars defend the sport's Olympics inclusion at Paris 2024.

Without influential pressure from international sport, Iran is set to execute another star wrestler.

With Canada's equestrian jumping Pan Am Games disqualification confirmed, the equestrian quota field is now complete for Tokyo 2020.

No fluke: U.S. women continue to make a mark in cross-country skiing.

​Team GB sailor Luke Patience has an Olympic silver medal, but wants to step up. "It is really gold medal only as my target for Tokyo."

USA TODAY presents its roundup of 100 Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls to watch for at Tokyo 2020.

Team USA BMX rider Hannah Roberts is now a married woman.

Jordanian Farah Al As'ad is raising support for the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation in a big way...planting the THF flag on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Up and coming sprinter Corinne Humphreys is interviewed by the Five Rings to Rule Them All podcast on her late sport start, how she has adjusted her training during the pandemic, and the impact of being an out gay athlete.

The IHF Men's World Championships start in Egypt, minus two Covid-stricken teams. Are these the first world championships to take place since the start of the pandemic?

Half marathon world record holder Kibiwott Kandie is now focusing on long-distance track success to make the Kenyan Tokyo 2020 team.

R.I.P. to Canadian rowing legend and Olympic champion Kathleen Heddle, who lost a battle with cancer at age 55.

​Runner Alexi Pappas continues opening up on mental health challenges in an interview with katiecouric.com, in advance of her memoir, "Bravey".

Oleg Verniaiev speaks with The Olympic Channel on his goals for Tokyo 2020 and much more in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview.

Paris 2024 continues heartbreak: why can't squash get a fair chance? Squash players aren't the only upset sportspeople.

I don't know if it's me that's old and out-of-touch, or if it's the IOC members that are old and foolish for thinking breaking is the right direction to reach "youth", but either way I suppose one needs to get used to results and news like this. B-Girl Kastet and B-Boy Shigekix??

Olympian track & field siblings Thomas and Jessie Barr launch a "Runuary" health program to help everyone in Ireland with their running goals throughout January.

Meanwhile, Team USA looks at sprinters' Grant Holloway's and TJ Holmes' "RunJumpThrow" event to teach kids athletics as they fill up their pandemic time.

Morgan Cipres: Sh*t just got real.

Olympic.org checks in with some members of the Refugee Athlete Scholarship team, including swimmer Yusra Mardini, wrestlers Amir Al-Awad and Aker Al Obaidi, and boxer Farid Walizadeh and how they are giving back to their communities while still training for Tokyo 2020.

Might athletics legend Jim Thorpe get his due again, finally?

Cycling held an ESports World Championship...and Olympic rower (!) Jason Osborne wins the men's elite race, over a field of accomplished, professional cyclists. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio won the women's race.

Marco Odermatt ends a 10-year drought for Switzerland in a men's World Cup giant slalom race. And in the same race, Maarten Meiners also made history - scoring the first-ever World Cup points for a Dutch skier with his 26th place.