⚙️How it works: Outside of the Olympics, there are three distinct climbing disciplines — lead climbing, bouldering and speed climbing — but Tokyo organizers made the controversial decision to combine all three into one event, meaning climbers who usually specialize in one discipline will have to excel in all three to capture the solo gold medal. Tricky.

• In lead climbing, athletes have six minutes to climb as high as they can up a 15m (49-foot) wall. Bouldering gives climbers four minutes to scale smaller walls. And speed climbing pits two climbers against each other in a race to the top. 
• Twenty women and 20 men will participate in all three events for the qualifying round, and then the top eight of each gender will move on to the final round, where they’ll run through all three disciplines again.

👀Who to watch: Despite the unusual combined set-up, Canada has an advantage: climber Alannah Yip, who usually specializes in bouldering, won gold for the combined event at the Pan American Games just last year. 

• On the men’s side, we have bouldering specialist Sean McColl, who’s a four-time world champion in the combined event and a fan favorite, thanks to his style, strength, creativity and entertaining Instagram.

👀Who to watch: Four Americans will compete for gold: Kyra Condie and Brooke Raboutou in the women’s event and Nathaniel Coleman and 17-year-old Colin Duffy in the men’s. 

• Condie and Duffy are no strangers to the combined discipline, with Condie having won the 2018 Pan American Championship and the 2019 USA Climbing Combined Invitational, while Duffy is the reigning Pan American champ.

⏰When to watch:

• August 3rd: Men’s qualifying
• August 4th: Women’s qualifying
• August 5th: Men’s final

August 6th: Women’s final 

⚙️How it works: Eight gold medals are up for grabs — four for the women, four for men — in the latest martial arts Olympic event. Karate has two disciplines: Kumite and Kata. Kumite has three weight categories, and focuses on fighting or sparring, while Kata (meaning “form” in Japanese) is judged solely on technique.

• Kumite: During a three-minute fight, points are awarded for kicks and punches, and the first to gain an eight-point advantage, or the top scorer by the end of the three minutes, wins. Karatekas will participate in an elimination round, the semifinal and the final.
• Kata: Athletes are judged on their technique correctness and overall athletic performance. After the preliminary scoring round, the top performers move on to a ranking round and from there move to the final or bronze medal event.

👀Who to watch: Just one Canadian karateka to cheer on: Daniel Gaysinsky, who will compete in the men’s +75kg (+165-pound) Kumite event. With a 2019 Pan American Games silver medal under his belt, he’s a top contender.

👀Who to cheer for: On the women’s side, sole American Sakura Kokumai will compete in the women’s Kata event, while three men — Tom Scott, Brian Irr and Ariel Torres — will compete in the men’s -75kg Kumite, +75kg Kumite and Kata, respectively. 

⏰When to watch:

• August 5th: Women’s Kata, women’s -55kg Kumite, men’s -67kg Kumite
• August 6th: Women’s -61kg Kumite, men’s Kata, men’s -75kg Kumite

August 7th: Women’s +61kg Kumite, Men’s +75kg Kumite 

⚙️How it works: This event will start with four-person heats (similar to track & field). Each heat competes for 20 to 35 minutes (depending on the waves), with surfers riding as many waves as they like during that span of time. Cowabunga! 

• A panel of five judges scores each maneuver, and the top two performers from each heat move on to round 3 while the bottom two move to round 2 for a second chance to move to the knockouts.  
• Scores are generated from a 10-point scale, and the International Olympic Committee's (IOC’s) judging criteria match that of the International Surfing Association (ISA). 
• The decision to hold the event at Tsurigasaki Beach on Japan’s Pacific coast, without artificial waves, has not been well-received, considering world No. 1 and Olympic favorite Gabriel Medina has described the area’s current waves as “small and funky.”

👀Who to watch: Team USA is stacked. With world No. 1 Carissa Moore and No. 6 Caroline Marks on the women’s side, along with world No. 10 John John Florence (so nice they named him twice) and No. 38 Kolohe Andino (who’s making his return from injury) on the men’s, we’re bound to bring home at least one medal. 

• And if anyone’s going to stop that from happening, it’ll be the aforementioned Medina of Brazil or Australian power squad of Stephanie Gilmore and Owen Wright.

👀Who to watch: Without any Canadians in the field, we’ll be cheering for current Queen of the Waves, Carissa Moore, and her American teammate John John Florence (so nice they named him twice), and Australian power squad Stephanie Gilmore and Owen Wright.

⏰When to watch: 

• July 25th to 27th: Qualifying

July 28th: Gold medal round 

 ⚙️How it works: There are two disciplines in Olympic skateboarding: street and park. And while each has its own set-up, both are scored by a five-judge panel. The street course mimics an urban setting with steps, railings, curbs and benches, while the park course looks like a skate park, with slopes and walls (think empty swimming pool vibes). 

• Street boarding: In each round, 20 skaters will attempt five tricks and two runs before the top eight skaters advance to the final. The finalists will then take another two runs to prove their charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent originality, ability and skill.
• Park skating: Each of the 20 skaters has three, 45-second runs to show off as many tricks as they can, and will be judged on their maneuvers, flow and use of the course. And like street boarding, the top eight move on to the final round.

👀Who to watch: Thirteen-year-old skateboarding phenom Sky Brown will set a record as the youngest British Olympian ever when she competes in the women's park event. Just a year removed from a nearly-fatal accident while training, Brown is ranked third in the world before her Olympic debut.

• As for our Canadians, three B.C. natives will compete for the red and white: world No. 30 Andy Anderson in the men’s park event, and world No. 10 Matt Berger and world No. 21 Micky Papa in men’s street.
• As for Team USA, 12 Americans will compete, including world No. 6 women’s street skater Mariah Duran, and one of the highest paid skaters in the world and men’s street 6-time world champion Nyjah Huston.

⏰When to watch:

• July 25th: Men’s street
• July 26th: Women’s street
• August 4th: Women’s park

August 5th: Men’s park 

COVID-19: COVID-19 has entered the building Olympic Village. American tennis star Coco Gauff announced her COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent withdrawal from the Games yesterday, while two South African footballers became the first athletes to test positive while already inside the Olympic Village. 

• Six British athletes and the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) women’s rugby 7s team are in isolation after coming into close contact with an infected plane passenger and their athletic therapist respectively. 
• And the coach of the South African men’s rugby team, who had also been in isolation, will now spend a mandatory 14 days in an isolation facility after testing positive on Saturday.

The precautions: As mentioned in our latest podcast episode of The GIST of It, organizers are taking many precautions to avoid an outbreak inside the Olympic bubble, which houses over 11,000 athletes and nearly 80,000 support staff, officials and media members. 

• All athletes must provide two negative tests prior to flying to Tokyo and a negative test upon arrival, and they are also required to download two apps on their phones: one that monitors location and another for daily reporting of their temperature and symptoms. 

Masks are mandatory except when competing, tests will be readily available and once the Games officially begin, any athlete who tests positive will be disqualified from competition. Oh, and no sex. Fun times.