Wrestling, baseball/softball and squash made an International Olympic Committee (IOC) shortlist for potential inclusion in the 2020 Games, with five other sports failing to make the cut in a tight contest on Wednesday.
The three sports will now be put to the vote at an IOC session in Buenos Aires in September, with only one of them winning a place on the 2020 Games program.
The IOC is eager to revamp its sports program in a bid to keep the Olympics relevant to a younger generation, and to attract viewers and sponsors.
Five other sports — karate, wakeboarding, sports climbing, wushu and roller sports — did not make the shortlist, meaning their chances of Olympic inclusion were dashed for at least another four years.
“It was never going to be an easy decision, but I feel my colleagues on the [executive] board made a good decision in selecting baseball/softball, squash and wrestling to be put forward in Buenos Aires,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said.
Wrestling was taken off the 2020 Games program in February in a shock move, but Wednesday’s decision threw the sport an Olympic lifeline.
The sport, which traces its roots to the ancient Olympics in Greece and has featured in every modern Games since 1896 apart from in 1900, has frantically scrambled to push through a string of reforms since February in a desperate bid to remain in contention.
The IOC has been heavily criticized for its decision to take wrestling off the program and should the sport now claim back its Olympic spot, a two-year process aimed at revamping the program would have resulted in no change at all.
Wrestling comfortably made the cut on Wednesday after only one round, winning a majority eight out of 14 votes.
Baseball/softball, which received no votes in the first round, booked its spot next after beating karate nine votes to five in a head-to-head.
Squash clinched the final place on the short-list, grabbing eight votes compared to wushu’s four and sport climbing’s two.
Olympic inclusion guarantees sports millions of dollars of revenues and exclusion can stifle a sport’s global growth.
The 26 Olympics sports at last year’s London Games got anything from US$14 million to about US$47 million each, depending on their popularity, from the IOC alone as part of a revenue-sharing deal.
Baseball and softball, which in 2005 became the first sports to be taken off the Games program since polo in 1936, united into one federation and the move paid off as they grabbed a spot on the list.
“We got a chance to fight for our dreams,” said Don Porter, co-president of the World Baseball Softball Federation.
The sport was last played at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
For squash, which battled to win a spot at the 2016 Olympics, but lost out to rugby union and golf, it was a long-awaited decision.
“This is a huge milestone in our quest to join the Olympic program and I would like to thank the executive board for the faith it has placed in squash,” federation chief N. Ramachandran said.
The IOC will elect the 2020 Games host city at its session on Sept. 7 and the new sport to be included in those Games a day later.
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