By Dennis Young, FloTrack: Link
As part of a push to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics "more youthful, more urban" and to increase women's participation, the International Olympic Committee and International Association of Athletics Federation will introduce a mixed 4x400m relay to the Games.
The IAAF already experimented with a mixed 4x4 at this spring's World Relays, which the Bahamas won.
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Swimming will also be adding a mixed gender relay, and most notably, basketball is adding a 3-on-3 tournament. Overall, track is losing 105 spots, though the early rounds of the Olympics are often filled with athletes who don't have the qualifying standard. For example, athletes with the qualifying standard don't have to run the first round of the 100 meters; this year's men's 100 first round saw 12 of the 22 men in the first round fail to break 11 seconds.