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鈥檚 baseball/women鈥檚 softball were all celebrating Wednesday.
鈥淭his is going to change our world,鈥� 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.
鈥淲e were banging stuff and screaming,鈥� said Richard Mosdell of Victoria, the Karate sa国际传媒 high-performance chairman and sa国际传媒 team manager.
鈥淭o 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,鈥� 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鈥檚 existing stature as the epicentre of Canadian surfing. Many of sa国际传媒's greatest surfers hail from the Island community, including Peter Devries, Mike Darling, Noah Cohen and 13-year-old prodigy Mathea Olin.
鈥淚t will give kids with high-level drive more motivation toward what could be their future,鈥� said Devries, after learning of the IOC vote.
Not that Devries, even at 33, is out of the hunt himself toward becoming an Olympian.
鈥淭he world鈥檚 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鈥檚 keep our fingers crossed that we get waves in Japan.鈥�
The announcement brought national team softball player Emma Entzminger of Victoria, 20, one swing closer to being an Olympian in four years.
鈥淭his is very exciting. I鈥檝e always dreamed of playing in the Olympics. At 24 [in 2020], I will definitely be in my prime and I鈥檓 hoping to be there,鈥� 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.
鈥淏eing an Olympic sport means there will be more funding for Team sa国际传媒 [in softball],鈥� added Entzminger. 鈥淚t will have an effect on kids and will definitely help the game grow.鈥�
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 sa国际传媒 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 sa国际传媒鈥檚 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.
