The Olympic Games, Agenda 2020 and action sports: the promise, politics and performance of organisational change

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the power and politics involved in the process of including three new action sports–surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing–into the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Drawing upon interviews with 20 key individuals involved in the process (e.g. action sport IF Presidents and staff; Presidents of action sport national federations; industry members; athletes), and formal and informal communications with IOC staff, we reveal the complex power relationships between the IOC and international action sport governing bodies, and within the International Federations of surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing. Furthermore, we contextualise the inclusion of these new action sports into the Tokyo 2020 programme within Agenda 2020 and significant IOC policy reform. Bringing together a critical sociological engagement of the Olympic Games with a typology of international organisational change, we consider whether Agenda 2020 is a policy signalling deep organisational learning and significant cultural change, or rather a superficial attempt at performing the changes necessary to maintain their dominance in the global sports economy. Despite promises and proclamations of organisational change, we conclude that the inclusion of action sports into the Tokyo 2020 Games is a salient example of the complex operations of hegemony in the highly competitive sports market, with the power of the IOC adapting and enrolling unlikely others in its operations.