New Olympic Sports - Baseball, Golf, Karate, Roller Sports, Rugby Sevens, Softball and Squash made Bids for 2016 Games
Last updated 28/06/2009 16:20:59
New potential Olympic Sport - Karate
Baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens, softball and squash made their bids for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games when they each gave a 20 minute presentations to the Executive Board setting out as to why they should be included in the 2016 Games.
Just the two sports will be chosen by the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board and not four as some hoped.
This confirmed the previous statement by Jacques Rogge, the President of the IOC, who had announced in March that the Board would choose two of the seven sports bidding to be included in 2016 at its meeting in Berlin on August 13.
There had been speculation that they may choose three, or even four, to put before the IOC at its Session in Copenhagen on October 9 so that the members had a choice for the final two.
Christophe Dubi, the IOC's Sports Director, said: "This is something he [Rogge] said publicly during SportAccord in Denver so it was very clear and again here with all the [seven] federations he said at the end [of their presentations] that it would be a choice of two."
Rogge said: "All seven sports made interesting and informative presentations. All have something to offer.
"In the end, the decision will come down to which are the best fit for the Olympic programme."
The Olympic Programme Commission, composed of IOC members, representatives of international federations and National Olympic Committees as well as experts, are overseeing the evaluation process with the Commission is due to deliver a report assessing the candidate sports to the Executive Board on the eve of its vote in August.
Dubi said: "They were asked what value added do you think you will bring to the Games and the Olympic Movement and in return what will the Games bring to your sport.
"They have all done this exercise with different arguments."
All the sports emerged from their presentations professing confidence about how well they had done.
Golf and rugby sevens remain the strong front runners but there are doubts over adding yet another team sport to the already heavily congested programme while golf is still seen by some countries as an elitist sport.
Golf was heavily represented with Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, widely regarded as the best female player of all time, part of a high-level delegation which also included Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie, of Great Britain.
They both came away confident of being in the final running for one of the two places.
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