Karate in the Olympics

Seven sports make case Friday for place at 2016 Summer Olympics
Nov 14, 2008

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Seven sports made their case Friday for inclusion in the Olympics, competing for two spots on the program for the 2016 Summer Games.

Baseball, golf, karate, rugby, softball, roller sports and squash made hour-long, closed-door presentations to the International Olympic Committee's program commission.

The 16-member commission will deliver an influential report to the IOC's top decision-making body before a vote on the 2016 schedule to be held next year in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The seven sports were rejected for the 2012 London Games program in voting by more than 100 IOC members three years ago. Baseball and softball were dropped, while the other five failed to gather enough support to join the existing 26 core sports on the Olympic program.

IOC sports director Christophe Dubi said the sports had passed an important milestone.

"It is the first time they meet and have the possibility to sell their proposition to the members," he said.

The program commission, including eight IOC members and eight administrators from other sports, asked the candidates to demonstrate they could appeal to a global audience and young people, would bring their best athletes to the games and could comply with World Anti-Doping Agency standards.

Baseball made the first presentation Friday, and International Baseball Federation president Harvey Schiller told reporters the session went well.

"I thought everybody was smiling," he said.

Baseball was followed by golf, which was represented by PGA executive Ty Votaw and Peter Dawson of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland.

"I think they felt we made a powerful presentation," Dawson said.

Schiller said the six-member baseball delegation was asked if it could deliver major league players to a 16-team Olympic tournament in August 2016.

"We're committed to bringing the best players ever to the Olympic baseball tournament," he said. "We talked about our advances in drug testing. We have an agreement with the professional leagues in terms of out-of-competition testing for the events we sanction."

Each sport must host an IOC delegation to observe an event, and baseball has invited officials to attend the World Baseball Classic finals in Los Angeles next March.

The golf delegation brought the trophy presented the last time the sport was played at the Olympics in 1904.

Votaw said golf's strong points were "speaking with one voice, bringing top players, and worldwide participation," with the sport televised in 216 countries each week.

"We would be able to promote golf in the Olympics and the Olympic movement across that platform every single week," Votaw said. "I think it was favourably received."

The presentation featured video messages from Tiger Woods and Lorena Ochoa, the No. 1 players in the men's and women's game.

Golf's Olympic proposal is for 60-player men's and women's tournaments, one in each week of the Olympics. It has not been decided if the events would be strokeplay or matchplay format.

Votaw said an IOC observer team could be invited to attend the Masters tournament at Augusta, Georgia.

Rugby fell from the Olympic program in 1924 and wants to come back with the seven-a-side, shorter version of the game for men and women, rather than the more established 15-a-side competition.

International Rugby Board chief executive Mike Miller said the sport was a proven success at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, and was being added to the Pan-American and African Games schedules.

"It is a format that works incredibly well over two or three days with packed houses," he said.

International Softball Federation president Don Porter said his sport's chances might have been helped when U.S. dominance at the Olympics was ended when the Americans lost to Japan in the gold medal game in Beijing.

"More countries are getting to be more competitive and we're working toward that," he said, with more national cup contests in development. "We have got a lot of work to do and change is coming. We're doing what we need to make our sport exciting, interesting and available."

World Karate Federation president Antonio Espinos said the sport had 180 national federations and promoted values of fairness and discipline.

"We want to have increased resources to spread the social and educational values of karate," Espinos said.

He said he answered IOC concerns about how contestants could protest the judging of bouts across 10 classes, five each for men and women.

The International Federation for Roller Sports proposed to stage 10 races, five each for men and women from sprints to marathons raced on road or track.

Roberto Marotta, the IFRS secretary general, said the sport was young and dynamic and would bring 100 athletes to compete over three days.

"You can see millions of people skating all around the world," Marotta said. "They should like to see their sport in the Olympics."

The World Squash Federation proposed to stage 32-player singles tournaments for men and women played in mobile glass courts at television-friendly places.

"When you put a glass court in an iconic location it always has this appeal," WSF president Naresh Ramachandran said.

The WSF delegation was introduced by IOC member Prince Tunku Imran of Malaysia, who led a previous bid for Olympic status in 1989.

The program commission will meet in May before presenting a report to the IOC executive board.

The board meets in Lausanne in June to hear each sport's second presentation and decide whether to cut some from the list offered to the full IOC membership. A simple majority is needed for a sport to be voted onto the program.

The IOC will also select the 2016 host city during the Copenhagen session. The candidates are Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.