The organizing committee of the Paris Olympics said Thursday it will not recommend adding baseball-softball and karate to the program of the 2024 Games, dealing a blow to Japan, which has been considered a medal favorite in the sports.

The Paris organizers said they will recommend three sports that were newly added to the 2020 Tokyo Games -- skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing -- to the International Olympic Committee in addition to breakdancing, which made its debut at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.

The four additional sports come on top of the 28 sports already on the program.

Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris organizing committee, told a press conference that the organizers do not intend to propose any other sport than the four that were announced.

Baseball, along with its sister discipline of softball, will return to the Olympic program for the first time in three games, while the Okinawa-born martial art of karate will make its debut next summer in Tokyo, where there are 33 sports on the program.

The Paris organizing committee suggests holding a total of 12 medal events in the four sports, which will be contested by a total of 248 athletes.

The International Olympic Committee is set to reach a decision on the additional sports and the number of athletes competing in the events by December 2020. It will follow a series of discussions starting in March.

The announcement was met with mixed reactions in Japan as athletes and sporting bodies prepare for the next Olympics in Tokyo.

Japan Karatedo Federation General Secretary Shuji Kusaka, who had worked to keep karate in the program after the 2020 Games, said the organizers made the decision even before seeing the sport being contested at the Olympics for the first time.

"This (announcement) came even before having people watch karate at the Tokyo Olympics and think it was good," he said. "It's not a matter of setting the mood (ahead of the Tokyo Games) anymore. I think it may even bring the mood down."

Meanwhile, Takashi Nishikawa, the head coach of the skateboarding division at Japan Roller Sports Federation, said allowing skateboarders to compete in Paris will allow young prospects to have a goal to aim for.

"I'm very happy. This gives a new dream and opportunity to elementary and junior high school children, who will be the next generation (of skateboarders) after the Tokyo Olympics," he said. "All the more reason for us to have several podium finishes at the Tokyo Olympics."