Six International Sports Federations (IFs) were granted full recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its 138th session in Tokyo on July 20. The six new IFs are: the International Cheerleading Union (ICU), the International Federation of Muaythai Associations (IFMA), the International Sambo Federation (FIAS), the International Federation Icestocksport (IFI), the World Association of Kickboxing Organisations (WAKO) and World Lacrosse (WL). Raffaele Chiulli, the president of the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF), welcomed the decision as an “historic day for the global sports community and an incredible milestone for each of these respective sports.”
Furthermore, the 138th IOC Session unanimously approved the inclusion of ski mountaineering as an additional sport for the program of the Milano Cortina 2026 edition of the Olympic Winter Games in Italy. The IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 introduced new flexibility to the Olympic program, moving from a sport-based to an event-based program. The inclusion of ski mountaineering into the program of this specific edition of the Olympic Winter Games will consist of five new medal events - two men’s events (sprint/individual), two women’s events (sprint/individual) and one mixed-gender relay event – and an athlete quota of 48 (24 men and 24 women) falling within the overall quota framework of 2,900. The full event program will be decided at the IOC’s executive board meeting in June 2022.
