The formal criteria, on paper
The IOC's baseline rules for admitting a sport are specific: it must be widely practiced, with men competing in at least 75 countries across four continents and women in at least 40 countries across three continents, and it needs a real spectator and broadcast following, clearly written rules, and a governing body capable of running it. The sport also cannot meaningfully add to the cost of staging the Games, and the host city needs the infrastructure, existing or planned, to support it. Those criteria were built for a slower, more centralized era of program decisions, and by the 2010s the IOC had concluded they were too rigid to keep the Games feeling current.
