At its meeting in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday (3 August), the International Olympic Committee has agreed to add five new sports to the programme of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: karate, skateboarding, sports climbing, surfing and baseball/softball.

Surf's up: Five more sports added to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Visitors to Rio 2016 will have ample opportunity to try each of these fast-growing sports in this year's Olympic city.

Sports climbing

The sports climbing craze reached Rio de Janeiro a few years ago and has kept growing. With its steep and craggy landscape, the city is a climber's paradise. Wherever you are in southern Rio, you are never far from the rocks, boulders and mountains where you can test your skills. There's also a popular indoor gym in Botafogo for climbing walls.

The Urca neighbourhood, home to Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar), is probably the best place to get out the chalk and take your grip and balance to the limit. For urban sport climbing, there's nowhere in the world like Rio de Janeiro.

Skateboarding

Rio de Janeiro is one of the world's great skateboarding destinations, combining a vibrant urban youth culture with spectacular scenery and numerous skate parks.

Top-quality skate parks are all over the city. The Madureira Skatepark is a regular stop for the world championships and there are places to skate in Parque de Madureira in northern Rio, the deep bowl in Botafogo opposite the Rio Sul shopping mall, in the Aterro do Flamengo park near the city centre and in Praça do Ó in Barra da Tijuca (not too far from the Olympic Park).

For scenery, you can't do better than the bowls right by the beach in Parque Garota de Ipanema in Arpoador and opposite Flamengo football club next to the lagoon.

As well as the skate bowls, the unique cityscape of Rio provides ample opportunities for street skaters, especially along the beachfront on Sundays when the main road is closed to traffic.

Karate

In 2020, karate will be coming home when it debuts on the Olympic stage in Tokyo. Ahead of the martial art's Olympic debut iin four-years time, the Brazilian Karate Confederation (CBK) is already developing medal hopes for the competition.

At the end of 2015, a total of sixteen Brazilian karatekas were in the official top-ten rankings for their category, including top-ranked Douglas Brose and Sabrina Pereira. Visitors to Rio 2016 will have the opportunity to watch one of the biggest competitions in the country on 21 August: the traditional Rio de Janeiro v São Paulo tournament.

Baseball/softball

Baseball in Rio de Janeiro has one of the best addresses in town: the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. The southeastern corner of this year's venue for the Olympic rowing and canoe sprint events is home to the only public baseball ground in the city.

During the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, this spot will be the location for the Swiss hospitality house. As a legacy to the city after the Games, the Swiss will invest in modernising the ground, so the numbers of baseball and softball players in Rio look set to grow in the future. It's hard to think of a better backdrop for a game.

Surfing

It's a pity that surfing wasn't included in the Olympic Games in time for Rio 2016. Rio de Janeiro is one of the spiritual homes of the sport, combining great waves, spectacular beaches and beautiful, barely clad bodies.

In the heart of the tourist action there are some decent breaks close to the rocks at Leme and Arpoador beaches and at the western end of Leblon; things can get very busy at these spots.

Further out of town, check out the long beaches of Barra and Recreio when conditions are good and the swell is large. Even further to the west, Prainha offers by far the best surf breaks in Rio, all against a stunning backdrop of untouched tropical forest.