From golf to roller speedskating, the seven sports vying for inclusion in the 2016 Summer Games have submitted their proposals to the International Olympic Committee.
Baseball, softball, rugby sevens, squash and karate also sent in their documents by this week’s deadline providing answers to 80 questions, the IOC said.
The seven sports are competing for a maximum of two openings on the 2016 programme. The decision will be made in October at the IOC session in Copenhagen, where the 2016 Olympic host city will also be selected from Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.
The IOC programme commission will evaluate the sports federations’ documents and submit a preliminary report to the executive board in June.
In Copenhagen, the IOC general assembly will vote en bloc on the continuation of the existing 26 sports. The voting procedure for the potential addition of one or two new sports has yet to be finalised. IOC members voted in 2005 to drop baseball and softball for the 2012 London Olympics.
Rugby sevens, squash, golf, karate and roller sports were each considered for inclusion in the 2005 vote but all failed to win a required two-thirds majority. The system has since been changed to require only a simple majority for addition of new sports.
The International Golf Federation is proposing a 72-hole stroke play Olympic tournament for men and women, with 60 players in each field. In the case of a tie, a three-hole play-off would be held to determine the medalists. The top 15 players in the world rankings would qualify automatically. Golf organisations have agreed to adjust their summer schedules to ensure that no major championships conflict with the Olympic tournament.
Golf instituted regular drug-testing last year, putting the sport in line with Olympic requirements.
“Never before, in both mind and spirit, have all levels of golf around the world been so united towards a single goal,” the golf bodies said in a letter to the IOC.
Softball, meanwhile, continues to distance itself from baseball, stressing that its best players all go to the Olympics and that the sport has had no positive doping tests at the elite level.
The International Softball Federation also says the women’s sport is growing in popularity around the world, including in developing and Middle East countries where female participation in team sports is rare.
“These are crucial times for softball and we are convinced that we adhere closely to the values which reflect the Olympic movement,” ISF president Don Porter said.
The International Baseball Federation insists its Olympic hopes should not be hurt by the high-profile doping controversies in Major League Baseball involving such stars as Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
“Despite some of the recent headlines, baseball as a sport has never been better positioned globally for success,” IBAF president Harvey Schiller said.
The fact that major league players haven’t taken part in previous Olympic tournaments – which take place during the regular season – is also an issue. But Schiller said the federation has several proposals on the table that would allow MLB players to take part, including cramming the entire Olympic tournament into five days.
“Baseball is big business and you don’t have to shut (the league) down to have the best players in the Olympics,” he said last Thursday in Tokyo. “Just as the Premier League doesn’t stop playing football.”
Rugby was played at the 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924 Olympics.
The International Rugby Board is proposing rugby sevens tournaments for men and women with 12, 16 or 20 teams.
While 15-a-side rugby union is the premier version of the game, IRB secretary general Mike Miller said sevens has “unique attributes” that fit Olympic competition.
Miller said the Olympic tournaments can be played over two or three days, “require limited infrastructure and overlay investment and can take place in existing stadia.” The World Squash Federation says the sport is played by over 20 million people in 175 countries and could easily be integrated into the Olympics.
“Requiring just two perspex courts that can be located anywhere, it is an extremely cost effective and highly exciting spectator sport,” the federation said. “Squash can also state with certainty that an Olympic medal would be the highest honour in the sport, bar none.”
The roller sports federation proposes five men’s and five women’s speedskating races over three days, with 50 men and 50 women competing in sprint and distance events. Speeds in sprint races can reach 60 kph (37 mph).
“It is a young, dynamic, fast-paced and athletic spectacular sport,” FIRS secretary general Robert Marotta said.
The World Karate Federation claims 100 million members in 180 countries and says it is the most popular martial arts in the world.
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AIBA votes for women’s boxing at 2012 Olympics
JEREMY INSON
AP writer
The International Amateur Boxing Association voted last Wednesday to move ahead with a bid to include women’s boxing in the Olympics, starting with the 2012 Games in London.
Boxing is the only one of the 26 Olympic summer sports federations without female competitors.
AIBA president Ching-Kuo Wu said the executive committee voted unanimously to introduce women’s boxing into the Olympics and that an official application would be submitted to the International Olympic Committee at the end of the month.
The IOC would vote on the proposal at its session in Copenhagen in October.
“The IOC understands the importance of women’s boxing and knows the current developments and its popularity,” Wu told The Associated Press. “We are the only sport without women in the Olympics. We are the only sport where women’s rights are not fully respected. We have to work with the IOC to gain their understanding and support.”
After intensive lobbying, Wu believes the AIBA has garnered enough support to ensure a positive vote.
“We started this promotion of women’s boxing some time ago,” he said. “We also have a lot of support from the head of the IOC’s women’s commission, Anita De Frantz. She is also on our advisory council.”
Wu said safety was a prime concern, but noted that the 2008 Women’s World Championships in Ningbo City, China, had a safety record the sport could be proud of.
“It was a high standard of competition and what is more important is that at the end of the competition, there was no single injury,” he said.
Britain’s Olympic Sports Minister Tessa Jowell recently called for complete gender equality at the London Games.
“In the Olympic movement there should not be any discrimination, racial, sexual, political, so women (boxers) should have the right to compete in the Games,” Wu said.
With the arrival of women’s wrestling at the 2004 Athens Games, boxing is the only summer Olympic sport without a female analogue. Ski jumping also doesn’t have women’s competition at the Winter Olympics.
AIBA has approved and governed women’s boxing since 1994, establishing its women’s committee a decade ago and holding world championship tournaments and regional events. Those tournaments would serve as Olympic qualifiers if the sport is put on the London programme.
Wu was in Milan to oversee the city’s preparations for the men’s World Championships in September. AIBA also awarded the hosting rights to a number of future tournaments – the 2010 Women’s World Championships went to Barbados and the 2011 World Championships to Pusan, Korea.
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Rogge: financial crisis hits grassroots
RAF CASERT
AP sports writer
While the Olympics and other major events are weathering the financial storm, IOC president Jacques Rogge is worried about the smaller sports and poorer federations surviving the credit crunch.
Rogge said last Friday the economic crisis is hitting hard at the grassroots and national levels of many sports, with sponsorship, government subsidies and ticket sales drying up.
“I am receiving witnesses and calls every day from many countries in the world,” he said. “They are telling me: ‘In my country there is a big problem with local clubs, with national federations.’ I cannot put a name on it, but there are many.”
Rogge said fans are less willing to pay to see anything but the top-level events.
“The sale of tickets is also diminishing at local level,” he said. “If the economic crisis is long-lasting it will damage the popularity of sport.”
Rogge said the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and sports like football and athletics are popular and robust enough to withstand the pressures so far.
The reasons go well beyond sponsors pulling out in order to fall back on their core corporate tasks. Governments that have often been the lifeline for many sports across the globe are also on the retreat.
Rogge said the downturn didn’t hurt the IOC’s deal on European television rights and should not affect the US broadcast rights for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and 2016 Summer Olympics.
On other issues, Rogge said American swimmer Michael Phelps failed in his “duty” as a role model but deserves a second chance after being photographed with a marijuana pipe.
Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, was suspended by the US swimming federation for three months after a British newspaper published the photo of Phelps holding the pipe at a party in South Carolina.
“Michael Phelps had a duty to be a role model,” Rogge said. “It is not just enough to win eight medals. He has a role to play for youth. He has to be an example. He failed in that.”
Phelps has apologised and vowed not to make the mistake again.
Numerous athletes and athletes’ groups have complained that the system is impractical or an invasion of privacy.
