IOC approves changes to voting for Olympic sports

The International Olympic Comm-ittee last week amended its charter, allowing the entry of new sports into the Olympic programme with only a simple majority of votes rather than the current two-thirds majority.

The IOC is trying to revamp its Olympic programme, allowing for the easier addition of sports to keep up with changing trends.

Alarmed by a steady drop in young viewers, the IOC is eager to rejuvenate the Games sports programme to win them back.

A simple majority for the removal of sports is kept in place.

Baseball and softball, removed two years ago from the Games programme for the 2012 Olympics, were the first sports to be taken out since the 1930s.

The IOC has already set a ceiling of 28 sports for future summer Olympics.

The Beijing 2008 Games will be the last to feature 28 sports after the removal of baseball and softball for the London Olympics four years later.

The IOC has also agreed to set the number of core sports to 25 starting at the 2020 Games, exceptionally 26 only for the 2016 Games.

In addition to these 25 core sports, the backbone of the Games' popularity, a maximum of three could be voted in on a Games-to-Games basis.

"The new rules are very good," IOC president Jacques Rogge told an IOC session in Guatemala City. "They will allow the flexibility needed to keep our programme attractive."

The core sports could also be removed in exceptional cases when their universality and popularity drops dramatically, if there is widespread corruption or if the sport is not complying to anti-doping rules, Rogge said.