Golf and rugby sevens have been shortlisted for inclusion at the 2016 Olympic Games and women's boxing will make its first appearance on the Olympic programme at the London 2012 Games, the International Olympic Committee said yesterday.
The two sport earmarked for inclusion in 2016 were selected from seven candidate sports by the IOC's executive board at a meeting in Berlin and a final vote will be held at the IOC session in Copenhagen in October.
The other five - squash, softball, baseball, roller sports and karate - will need to wait another four years before attempting to make it on to the Games programme.
"In the end, the decision came down to which two would add the most value," IOC president Jacques Rogge told reporters.
"Golf and rugby scored high on all 33 criteria," Rogge said, adding this was still a proposal and it needed to be validated.
Golf could return to the Olympics for the first time since 1904.
"This is the biggest growth opportunity for golf," said Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient (R&A) and one of the bid leaders.
Rugby, which had been part of four Olympics until 1924, will feature its shorter and smaller version of sevens.
"It is a big step we took today," said International Rugby Board chairman Bernard Lapasset. "We worked hard for two years and we felt this work paid off today. Now we have another step to climb in October."
On the addition of women's boxing to the Olympic programme in London, Rogge said: "It is a great addition to the Games. Boxing was the sole sport where no women were involved (in the summer Olympics)."
The IOC said the current 11 men's events will be replaced by 10 men's and three women's events at the London Games.
The introduction of women's boxing, rejected in the past because of what the IOC said was a limited global appeal, does not need an IOC session approval as the sport is already on the Olympic programme.
The IOC also agreed on several changes to the events schedule of canoe competitions, replacing the men's C2 500m with women's K1 200m and replacing the three remaining men's 500m sprint events with 200m sprint events.
It said in a statement it would also consider including a mixed doubles tournament in tennis for the 2012 Games.