Seven sports battle for Olympic inclusion

Seven sports, bidding for two places on the Olympic Games programme, made their pitch to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday hoping to make the cut next year.

Karate, golf, squash, rugby, roller sports, baseball and softball are battling it out for two spots on the programme starting from the 2016 Olympic Games.

"It is crucial that the top organisations in golf are behind our effort and the commitment of top players is equally important," Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, told Reuters after his presentation to the IOC Programme Commission in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Golf's pitch included videos featuring, among others, men's and women's world number one Tiger Woods and Lorena Ochoa backing the sport's Olympic aspirations.

Top squash officials submitted their own Olympic pledge, a poster signed by top players committing themselves to the Games, to the IOC president Jacques Rogge.

The IOC, which will vote on the existing 26 sports on the programme and the inclusion of two more at its session in Copenhagen next October, has said top players' Olympic participation was a prerequisite for consideration.

This position has caused some friction with Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States with MLB flatly rejecting any proposal linked to the league shutting down for the Games.

The IOC has made it clear though it wants the world's best on the Olympic diamond if the sport is to have any chance of returning to the line-up and the International Baseball federation has assured top players would take part.

Baseball and softball were cut from the Olympic programme in 2005 and though they were held in Beijing they will not be played at the 2012 London Games.

The sports programme is determined seven years in advance.

Karate is among the most widely played of the seven sports, with 100 million members while roller sports hope to capitalise on the IOC's need to attract younger audiences.

Rugby is offering a sevens format for the Games and relying on the success of last year's World Cup as proof of its growing global popularity, another criterion for inclusion.

"Each (player) agrees that competing at the Olympic Games would be an amazing experience," Rugby World Cup 2007 winner Bryan Habana told the IOC commission members via video link.

"We would all be there and would be proud to call ourselves 'Olympians'."

At its session in October next year the IOC will vote on the existing 26 Olympic sports in one vote.

It is still unclear how the vote for the seven candidate sports will be conducted. The IOC has not ruled out drawing up a shortlist in the run-up to the October session.

Following the presentations yesterday, two IOC observers will monitor the sports for six months and attend one event of each before reporting back to the IOC executive board.