Five sports, all popular on the Island, were voted into the Olympics for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics during an IOC vote taken Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro.
Karate, wall climbing, surfing, skateboarding and men’s baseball/women’s softball were all celebrating Wednesday.
“This is going to change our world,” said Kraig Devlin of Victoria, the Canadian national karate team assistant coach, after watching the announcement on a TV screen, via live stream from Rio, with a group of young karate performers at the Kenzen Sports Karate Club in Royal Oak.
“We were banging stuff and screaming,” said Richard Mosdell of Victoria, the Karate B.C. high-performance chairman and B.C. team manager.
“To get this global recognition for karate is amazing, for little kids up to elite athletes, and will help the sport grow. Ours is a truly global sport that came from Japan,” added Mosdell, a fifth-degree black belt, who operates the Kenzen dojo, and coached for 10 years at the oldest Tokyo karate high school.
The Olympic imprint will only add to Tofino’s existing stature as the epicentre of Canadian surfing. Many of Canada's greatest surfers hail from the Island community, including Peter Devries, Mike Darling, Noah Cohen and 13-year-old prodigy Mathea Olin.
“It will give kids with high-level drive more motivation toward what could be their future,” said Devries, after learning of the IOC vote.
Not that Devries, even at 33, is out of the hunt himself toward becoming an Olympian.
“The world’s best surfer [Kelly Slater of the U.S.] is still going strong at 44. So I will definitely think about the Olympics and see about the qualification process. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we get waves in Japan.”
The announcement brought national team softball player Emma Entzminger of Victoria, 20, one swing closer to being an Olympian in four years.
“This is very exciting. I’ve always dreamed of playing in the Olympics. At 24 [in 2020], I will definitely be in my prime and I’m hoping to be there,” said the Lambrick Park graduate, who plays in the NCAA for San Jose State.
It also means better training and development opportunities for the five new Olympic sports.
“Being an Olympic sport means there will be more funding for Team Canada [in softball],” added Entzminger. “It will have an effect on kids and will definitely help the game grow.”
Softball in the Olympics was discontinued after 2008. Baseball also returns after missing two quadrennials. The last time it was in the Olympics, current Blue Jays left-fielder Michael Saunders of Victoria had eight hits, two homers, four RBIs and five runs scored in seven games to help lead Canada to sixth place at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.
Victoria HarbourCats managing director Jim Swanson said it would be hard to imagine an Olympics in Japan without baseball.
Meanwhile, climbing walls have become popular and now pockmark the region. Some of Canada’s best climbers train at Boulders Gym in Central Saanich, including Alison and Robert Stewart-Patterson and Elan Jonas-McRae, along with international speed-climbing legend Libor Hroza of the Czech Republic. Many of the global athletes who competed in the 2013 world youth climbing championships at Boulders Gym will be the Olympians competing in Tokyo.
