The 2020 edition of the Olympic Games, to be staged in the Japanese capital of Tokyo will see shooting in a new avatar. The sport will have both the Men and Women competing against one another.
The International Shooting Sports Federation(ISSF) is trying to figure out a plan to fit in the International Olympic Committee(IOC)’s ‘Agenda 2020” which calls for all sports bodies to “get 50 per cent female participation in the Olympic Games” and also have Mixed team events.
“We have been discussing it since our last executive committee meeting. Big questions about gender equality are coming up for the Tokyo Games. We have to make some serious decisions,” the secretary-general of the federation, Franz Schreiber told the Hindustan Times on Sunday.
When asked about which categories would need to change to accomodate the IOC’s wish Schreiber said that would be clear after the Rio Olympics in August.
“We will discuss this in the next general assembly and executive body meeting in June and July. If we come out with the changes now, it may affect those training for Rio. After that, we will have our tests,” he said.
Only once in the history of the Olympics has there been a combined event in shooting when at the Barcelona edition in 1992, skeet was an open event and as many as six women shooters were permitted to compete.
It was Shan Zheng of China who won the gold on that occasion. The chief of the National Rifle Assoiation of India(NRAI) Raninder Singh, who is also a memeber of the executive in the apex body, added that one could see a mixed team event in the double trap category.
