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Seven sports make their case for one of two spots at the 2016 Olympic Games

Seven sports made their case on Friday for inclusion in the Olympics, competing for two spots on the program for the 2016 Summer Games.

Baseball, golf, karate, rugby union, softball, roller sports and squash made hour-long, closed-door presentations to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) program commission.

The 16-member commission will deliver an influential report to the IOC’s top decision-making body before a vote on the 2016 schedule to be held next year in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The seven sports were rejected for the 2012 London Games program in voting by more than 100 IOC members three years ago. Baseball and softball were dropped, while the other five failed to gather enough support to join the existing 26 core sports on the Olympic program.

IOC sports director Christophe Dubi said the sports had passed an important milestone.

“It is the first time they meet and have the possibility to sell their proposition to the members,” he said.

The program commission, including eight IOC members and eight administrators from other sports, asked the candidates to demonstrate they could appeal to a global audience and young people, would bring their best athletes to the games and could comply with World Anti-Doping Agency standards.

Baseball made the first presentation on Friday and International Baseball Federation president Harvey Schiller told reporters the session went well.

“I thought everybody was smiling,” he said.

Baseball was followed by golf, which was represented by Professional Golfers’ Association executive Ty Votaw and Peter Dawson of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland.

“I think they felt we made a powerful presentation,” Dawson said.

Schiller said the six-member baseball delegation was asked if it could deliver major league players to a 16-team Olympic tournament in August 2016.

“We’re committed to bringing the best players ever to the Olympic baseball tournament,” he said. “We talked about our advances in drug testing. We have an agreement with the professional leagues in terms of out-of-competition testing for the events we sanction.”

Each sport must host an IOC delegation to observe an event and baseball has invited officials to attend the World Baseball Classic finals in Los Angeles next March.

The golf delegation brought the trophy presented the last time the sport was played at the Olympics in 1904.

Votaw said golf’s strong points were “speaking with one voice, bringing top players and worldwide participation,” with the sport televised in 216 countries each week.

“We would be able to promote golf in the Olympics and the Olympic movement across that platform every single week,” Votaw said. “I think it was favorably received.”

The presentation featured video messages from Tiger Woods and Lorena Ochoa, the No. 1 players in the men’s and women’s game.

Golf’s Olympic proposal is for 60-player men’s and women’s tournaments, one in each week of the Olympics. It has not been decided if the events would be strokeplay or matchplay format.

Votaw said an IOC observer team could be invited to attend the Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia.

Rugby union fell from the Olympic program in 1924 and wants to come back with the seven-a-side, shorter version of the game for men and women, rather than the more established 15-a-side competition.

International Rugby Board chief executive Mike Miller said the sport was a proven success at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, and was being added to the Pan-American and African Games schedules.

“It is a format that works incredibly well over two or three days with packed houses,” he said.
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