Innovation A Part Of The Evolution Of Summer Olympics – And Sunstone

Photo:https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/new-olympic-sports/

Welcome back to The Sunstone Way. 

We’re in the middle of the Summer Olympics, and I’ve been glued to the TV or computer screen in most of my spare moments, watching as much of the competition as I can. Watching the best in the world is inspiring, no matter the sport. 

Tradition Counts 

I like to watch pretty much any kind of sport, and one of the real draws of the Olympics is the wide variety of events. If you can’t find something to like with 32 sports and 329 events, well, you must not like sports (but watch some, and maybe you’ll change your mind). 

Of course I have some favorites, including the biggies – swimming, gymnastics, track and field. I got hooked on beach volleyball back when Long Beach superstar Misty May was winning gold medals with Kerri Walsh Jennings – they won gold in three straight Olympics! 

I have a particular fondness for team sports, where athletes have to work together. The precision of track relays, the passing and anticipation of other players’ moves in basketball and water polo, even the synchronization of artistic swimming always impresses, and provides an example of what we can do as a team. 

Lost Sports 

While some of the core sports like track and field go back to the beginning of the Olympics, others have been added – and some dropped again – over the years. Did you know that tug-of-war was an Olympic event in the early 20th Century? Baseball and softball were added in 2020, then dropped again this year, but will be back in 2028 here in Southern California. 

One of the world’s most popular sports, Cricket, was last played Olympically in 1900. There’s a push to bring it back, so we’ll see. Ditto for Lacrosse (although field hockey is still a medal sport). 

Windsurfing, a relatively new invention based in Southern California, was added to the Olympics in 1984. It was replaced by kitesurfing in 2016 in Brazil. (The sail is fixed on the board in windsurfing, the surfer is attached to a kite in the air in kitesurfing.) Apparently not sure which was better, the International Olympics Committee put both in the sailing categories for the 2024 Olympics. 

New Competitions 

This kind of change has been fairly common. Even within specific sports, there often are changes of specific events – there was once a standing high jump and standing long jump, for example. 

These days, there are 28 core Olympic sports, with the IOC allowing some leeway to the host city to add a few more. The Tokyo Olympics (2020, but held in 2021 due to COVID) was a big year for new sports, adding skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing, along with baseball and softball. 

In Paris, the definition of sport has expanded a bit, with the addition of Breaking, more commonly known as breakdancing. If you’ve ever seen someone breaking, you know it is an athletic endeavor. It will be contested as a competition between two breakers at a time – sort of like the battles in its birthplace of New York. Be sure to check it out on Friday, Aug. 9. 

Innovation Celebration 

This addition of breaking, along with the 2021 addition of skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing, shows that innovation is alive and well in the sporting world. And much of that innovation is taking place in Sunstone’s own backyards. 

Start with surfing. While some argue it began in Hawaii, there’s no argument that it was popularized in Southern California, thanks in part to the immortal Beach Boys. Skateboarding? It was first known as land surfing, and also got started near our Southern California home. 

It’s a little harder for us to claim sport climbing, since rock wall gyms and setups have popped up everywhere. But breaking started in the same city as our Manhattan office. We want to be where innovation happens. 

Sunstone has supported many startups with sports-related ideas, and celebrates whenever innovative concepts win widespread support – like appearing in the Olympics, for example. It is how our world keeps moving forward. 

And that’s The Sunstone Way. 

As always, remember to be a Sunstone! 

John Keisler 

CEO & Managing Partner 

Sunstone Management, Inc. 

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©Sunstone Management, Inc. 2024 

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