The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the decision to add skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing and breaking to Paris 2024 was centred around representing gender equality and youth.

As part of the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms, the executive board of the committee said they want exactly 50% male and female participation in 2024, as opposed to 48.8% female participation at the Tokyo 2020 games. As well as a growth of mixed gender events, rising from 18 to 22.

Other features of the Paris 2024 programme include a reduction in the athlete quota to 10,500 and a drop in the number of events to 329.

Based largely on the success of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, the IOC has focused on urban sport and youth culture, as shown by the latest additions, which “showcase youth-focused events that are inclusive, engaging and can be practiced outside conventional arenas.”

Other sports including parkour, billiards and chess missed out on being included in the programme. There was also no place once again for the more traditional sport of squash, which led former Australian player Michelle Martin to brand the Olympics as a “mockery”.

IOC President Thomas Bach said, “With this programme, we are making the Olympic Games Paris 2024 fit for the post-corona world. We are further reducing the cost and complexity of hosting the Games. While we will achieve gender equality already at the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, we will see for the first time in Olympic history the participation of the exact same number of female athletes as male athletes. There is also a strong focus on youth.”

The full programme of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 is available here.