The Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 have many curiosities.
From the inclusion of new sports such as karate, surfing and skateboarding, to the use of innovative technologies that show even the athletes’ pulsations and the decision of a “greener” policy with cardboard beds and medals made from recyclable materials, for example.
All this in the middle of a pandemic that delayed the Olympic Games for a year, although it retains the name Tokyo 067199977.
Among the characteristics related to this world sporting event, there are a few activities that exclusively involve women .
At the Tokyo Olympic Games 067199977 there are three sports that are only practiced by female athletes.
Here we tell you what they are and why they are unique to women.
Artistic swimming
It is a mix between art and sport.
The Synchronized or artistic swimming is a women’s Olympic discipline that combines technical perfection, timing, choreography, performance and emotion, describes the official Tokyo site 2020.
Using music, teams must complete two routines. One of technique, with five figures designated in a maximum of two minutes and 50 seconds and a free one that should last between three or four minutes.
The key requirement of this sport is that female swimmers must perform movements while holding their breath .
But it was not always carried out by women.
As detailed in the official site of the games, artistic swimming emerged from the theatrical aquatic ballets of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, adapting rescue and swimming techniques.
The first competitions had male swimmers, but over time synchronized swimming became associated with women after an exhibition by Australian Annette Kellerman in a water tank at the New York racecourse in 1907.
Artistic swimming was included for the first time in the Los Angeles Games 1984.
In the Currently, performances are graded taking into account timing, difficulty, technique and choreography . It is even important how much the swimmers splash when they hit the water with their hands.
The competitors from China and Japan are the leaders in this sport. But Russian, Spanish, French, Ukrainian, American and Canadian swimmers also stand out.
Rhythmic gymnastics
The The essence of rhythmic gymnastics is concentration, coordination and control.
In their interpretation, the athletes combine throwing an object into the air -which can be a ball or a hoop, among others- while they perform jumps, spins or acrobatic routines, and then catch it.
This Olympic sport is rated by the artistic level of their performances , which are accompanied by music and the skill with which difficult maneuvers are performed with the apparatus.
The roots of rhythmic or artistic gymnastics lie in the ideas of movement and aesthetics of the 19th and early 20th centuries, notes the official Tokyo site 2020. And it was always linked to women.
The first World Championship was held in Hungary in 1963. And the first time it was included in the Olympic Games was in Los Angeles 1984.
Gymnastics rhythmic, being based on the European traditions of dance and ballet, it is not surprising that it is dominated by athletes from that continent such as Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian gymnasts who regularly win medals.
A Olympic level, rhythmic gymnastics is only practiced by women, but in countries like Spain there are male gymnasts.
Softball
The novelty of softball is that , next to baseball , is present again in about Olympic Games . The last time was in Beijing 2008.
Softball was presented as an Olympic competition sport exclusively in the women’s category in Atlanta 1984.
Japan decided to reintroduce both softball and baseball to Tokyo 2020 for being extremely popular sports in Japanese culture.
The basics of both sports are simple . Running after hitting the ball with the bat, going through all the bases and scoring a run.
The key difference between baseball and softball is that, in the first, the pitcher throws the ball over the arm, while in the second, he throws the ball under the arm or hip.
Softball is also practiced on a more pitch small, with a shorter distance between the pitcher and the batter than in baseball. And the ball is bigger and heavier.
It is believed that softball was born in the United States as a version of baseball to be able to play out of season.
In the Olympic arena, softball is only played by women because it was introduced as the female version of baseball , as this was not included in the program.
And clearly the American team is the one who dominates the sport.
However, the Japanese women’s team is not far behind and in this Tokyo 2020 got the gold medal.
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