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New Olympic Sports?


Sir Rols

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I think what I'm suggesting is cities bid on the basis of the 25-26 core sports outlined by the IOC. But if there's room and a winning host city, which don't forget is likely to be spending a large amount of its own money on the event, wants to include another sport (or even two) in its programme it should be able to then go to the IOC and say "we'd like this in as well please, we have the venues and we can guarantee crowds and revenue".

So if after they'd won London proposed a Twenty20 cricket tournament on the basis that the venues are there and it would add some local flavour to the games as well as draw in revenue, the city's credentials would be checked then it would be okayed. The IOC members wouldn't vote on it - although they could vote on the mechanism to allow this to happen in the future. Perhaps the evaluation commission which visits the host city regularly to check on its progress would be the body who decides whether the city's extra sports are viable.

The point being, if the venues are already there, it shouldn't take much persuasion for a host city to get that sport's governing body on board (if any) and it won't take much organising to put on an Olympic tournament in that sport. It won't need the seven years preparation of building, say, an Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre. London/the UK could host a showpiece Olympic cricket tournament, for example, with very little time. And the same would go for baseball in America and local sports in other parts of the world.

I agree with you 100% - sort of like the old Demonstration Sports, but with more official standing.

Like I said, though, the only problem I can see with that is that it could open a can of worms with the IFs.

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Didn't Beijing do some sort of unofficial thing with Wushu? - Wasn't part of the games program, but was a major tournament on at the same time.

Yes, it held a concurrent Wushu world's Championships -- to which the IOC turned a blind eye insofar as the timing. And of course, winners from that tournament now 'claim' to be Olympic champions since they were held concurrently, and in the same city. :rolleyes:

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Well I think that its pretty obvious what the next moves for the IOC are in the near future for adding sports and events

London 2012 - Women's Boxing coupled with a modified men's boxing weight class like they did with wrestling

Sochi 2014 - ski halfpipe and women's ski jumping

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Anyway, I am wondering if Natural Track Luge will ever make it to the Olympics. The FIL has tried for years to have it included in the Olympics but has yet to succeed.

Anyway, the ICF (Canoeing) is moving to have Women's Canoeing added to the Olympics in 2016, starting whit the women's Slalom C1 and potentially some women's Canoeing flatwater races. There could also be a complete overhaul of the Canoing program at the Olympics. The ICF is bringing back some events at the worlds, like 5000m races and relays, and depending on there success they could be added at the Olympics (or replace an existing event).

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Well I think that its pretty obvious what the next moves for the IOC are in the near future for adding sports and events

London 2012 - Women's Boxing coupled with a modified men's boxing weight class like they did with wrestling

Sochi 2014 - ski halfpipe and women's ski jumping

Men's synchro swimming and Men's Rhythmic Gymnastics

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Well I think that its pretty obvious what the next moves for the IOC are in the near future for adding sports and events

London 2012 - Women's Boxing coupled with a modified men's boxing weight class like they did with wrestling

Sochi 2014 - ski halfpipe and women's ski jumping

That's just adding events to existing sports _ much more do-able for the IOC. Baron's got a point though - if they're serious about gender equality, where are the men's events for synchro swimming and rhythmic gymnastics?

The thing is, if they do add these events, the roster is still open to new sports. But then they'd have to juggle around with the numbers for athlete caps.

BTW - does anyone know, IF they introduce women's boxing (which I'm not particularly enthralled by), how many weight divisions they'd likely go with viz a vis the men?

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That's just adding events to existing sports _ much more do-able for the IOC. Baron's got a point though - if they're serious about gender equality, where are the men's events for synchro swimming and rhythmic gymnastics?

The thing is, if they do add these events, the roster is still open to new sports. But then they'd have to juggle around with the numbers for athlete caps.

BTW - does anyone know, IF they introduce women's boxing (which I'm not particularly enthralled by), how many weight divisions they'd likely go with viz a vis the men?

I am guessing 7 and 7 or 8 and 8. Though internationally right now its 11 and 13.

Canada produces some good female boxers so I am happy.

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I think that if they want to add more events to the Olympics, both Winter and Summer, they need to simply reduce the number of entries and quotas in various events, as well as various hangers-on. I for one do not understand why some events allow one country to field as many as four individual athletes. I think that three would suffice. I also don't get why a country can field TWO four-man bobsled teams in that event. Maybe for World Cup competition, but for Worlds and the Olympics, only ONE four-man team would suffice.

Anyway, here's a list of winter sports events that I would like to see in future Olympics:

FREESTYLE SKIING

Half Pipe (but would that conflict with the snowboarding version?)

Dual Moguls (but would that conflict with the individual version?)

SNOWBOARDING

Parallel Slalom (but would that conflict with the parallel GIANT slalom?)

Big Air (won't make it unless they create a women's event)

SPEED SKATING

100 meters

SYNCHRONIZED SKATING

BIATHLON

Mixed Relay (in fact, there should be more gender-neutral events in the Olympics)

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I also don't get why a country can field TWO four-man bobsled teams in that event. Maybe for World Cup competition, but for Worlds and the Olympics, only ONE four-man team would suffice.

Good point. But I think it's because you would only have, like 13 or 14 entrants, instead of say 22 (that would be counting dupes from the first 8-10 countries -- usually Germany, Russia, USA, Swiss, Sweden, Canada, Austria, Norway, maybe Italy, and soon CHina). Running the competition for 10-14 entrants hardly seems worth the effort.

But with women's teams now using the track as well, THEN they should remove the 2nd men's sled since the women's teams would've taken up the slack in numbers.

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I think that if they want to add more events to the Olympics, both Winter and Summer, they need to simply reduce the number of entries and quotas in various events, as well as various hangers-on. I for one do not understand why some events allow one country to field as many as four individual athletes. I think that three would suffice. I also don't get why a country can field TWO four-man bobsled teams in that event. Maybe for World Cup competition, but for Worlds and the Olympics, only ONE four-man team would suffice.

They are doing the opposite for bobsledding, by the way. In 2010, three countries will be aloud three Two-man sled, three countries will be aloud three Four-man sled and two countries will be aloud three two-woman sled.

In any case, something I would do is have fixed quotas for athletics and swimming instead of qualification times.

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March 9, 2009

Sevens heaven helps boost Olympic bid

Aled Thomas of Wales

Aled Thomas of Wales

Patrick Kidd

A spectacular weekend of rugby in the men's World Cup Sevens that featured semi-finalists from four different continents, as well as Australia becoming the first women's world champions, will have done much to boost the sport's hopes of inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will have noted that the sport has the global reach and the appeal to a young audience that is necessary for rugby to be readmitted to the Olympic programme after 92 years.

Speaking after Wales upset the form book to defeat Argentina 19-12 in the final on Saturday, Bernard Lapasset, the chairman of the International Rugby Board, said: “This was a tremendous tournament. I think it's a very important moment for sevens. We had some delegates from the IOC here and I am sure they were appreciative of what we have done.”

Rugby, in its 15-man form, last featured in the Paris Olympics in 1924 when the United States beat France for the gold medal. It is competing with baseball, softball, golf, squash, karate and roller-sports for two spaces in the 2016 Olympics. The IRB will make a final pitch to the IOC in June before the decision is taken at a meeting in Copenhagen in October.

The shorter game opens up rugby to a wider audience and the weekend's festival included teams from Brazil, Tunisia and the Arabian Gulf. It also had an unexpected winner in Wales, the No11 seeds. Not since Samson had his hair cut has Delilah caused such an upset in the Middle East. To the music of Tom Jones being sung round the 40,000-seat stadium, Wales, rated as 80-1 outsiders, showed the heart to keep fighting when more established teams faltered.

Shocks often happen in sevens, but no one would have predicted that the top four favourites would get knocked out in the quarter-finals. England lost in sudden-death extra time to Samoa; South Africa were beaten by Argentina and, to the delight of the crowd, many of whom were wearing Barack Obama T-shirts and chanting “Yes We Can”, Kenya destroyed Fiji, the defending champions, 26-7. The American President's election was taken as a sign that miracles can happen by his father's countrymen, but the miracles belonged to Wales.

A magical day for the Welsh began with a 15-14 quarter-final win over New Zealand, the perennial champions in the IRB World Series circuit against a team who had reached one quarter-final in their past four tournaments. It earned them a semi-final with Samoa, the quarter-final conquerors of England, which Wales won 19-12 with some astounding tackling and first-half tries from Aled Brew and Tal Selley.

Samoa were probably exhausted after beating England. Tom Varndell, the Leicester wing, scored twice to take his tournament tally to seven tries, but Samoa led 21-7 and 26-19 with 40 seconds remaining and a conversion in front of the posts. The kicker missed and England had the faintest chance.

In fact, the hooter sounded and Samoa jubilantly punted the ball into touch, only for the referee to say that there was time for one last play. England moved the ball quickly, using Varndell to draw the defence and leave a gap in which Josh Drauniniu could slip through. Ben Gollings's conversion took the game into sudden death. England should have won from there, but they twice chose to kick the ball ahead instead of retaining possession and on the second time, Samoa ran back and scored.

It was a bad day for England all round, with their women's side also losing in the quarter-finals, to Australia, the eventual champions. Having not conceded a point in the pool stage, they led Australia 10-5 at half-time but eventually lost 17-10.

After such exciting quarter-finals, the final was almost an anticlimax, although that is no excuse for the disgraceful display of disrespect by New Zealand who performed a haka on the sidelines for their supporters as the final was being played behind them.

Wales took the lead through tries by Richie Pugh and Selley, but Argentina kept striking back and it appeared the South Americans, who twice knocked on over the line, would be too good. Then, with two minutes left on the clock, Aled Thomas broke the deadlock, slipping a tackle to charge through the middle and spark delight and raucous singing around the ground.

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What do you think about
as new Olympic Winter Sport?

No IF, no international circuit, so it won't even be considered for quite some time.

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No IF, no international circuit, so it won't even be considered for quite some time.

Not necessary, it can be considered apart of the ISU. Developing a world cup is also not that hard. If it really tried it could be in 2014.

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Not necessary, it can be considered apart of the ISU. Developing a world cup is also not that hard. If it really tried it could be in 2014.

The decision has to be taken by 2010. You can't set up a world cup of respectable level and a world championships plus the required number of national teams within a year. If this immediately became a priority for the ISU (and to my knowledge they currently have no interest in "Skatercross"), it would still be near impossible for Crashed Ice to be featured in 2018, let alone 2014.

if the ISU suddenly became very interested in Skatercross (I kinda like that name) you still wouldn't see in the Olympics before 2022. Beside, they are other extreme sports they can add before that (Ski Half Pipe, Snowboard Big Air, Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle... Even Ice Climbing has more of a chance in the short term).

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big air has no female world championships and there is no slopestyle world championships organized by FIS.

I know, but I think I herd of the FIS wanting to develop both. In any case, it wouldn't be before 2018 for either of them.

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Ski half-pipe is the next FIS pushed sport to make it in, though -> no other federation has viable additions. Though I think the ISU and the IOC should put in men's 3000m and women's 10000m and men's and women's 3000m in the various speed skating disciplines. Also women's ski jumping and women's Nordic Combined also have to be addressed.

The IOC does not like mixed sports and overly repetitive things, so no biathlon mixed relay, mixed doubles curling, team skiing and luge.

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Ski half-pipe is the next FIS pushed sport to make it in, though -> no other federation has viable additions. Though I think the ISU and the IOC should put in men's 3000m and women's 10000m and men's and women's 3000m in the various speed skating disciplines. Also women's ski jumping and women's Nordic Combined also have to be addressed.

The IOC does not like mixed sports and overly repetitive things, so no biathlon mixed relay, mixed doubles curling, team skiing and luge.

I would actually love to see the men's and women's 100m in Long Track Speed Skating. It is a very exiting event and its a head to head instead of a time trial. The reason the Team Pursuit was such a huge success was because its a head to head and not a time trial. There isn't a world championships yet but the event is on the world cup circuit, so it wouldn't be anything new.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So we'll know in August which TWO new sports will be up for inclusion in 2016:

August D-Day for Olympic hopefuls

By Matt Slater

The race for a place in the 2016 Games has just got even hotter

The seven sports hoping to be included in the 2016 Olympic Games will be cut to two at a meeting in Berlin ahead of a final decision later in 2009.

The original plan was for the sports to make presentations in June before going to Copenhagen for the vote in October.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has now opted to cut five sports at August's executive board meeting.

"They've shifted the goalposts a bit," said Natalie Grainger, the president of the women's pro squash tour.

"This year all the sports have been ramping up their campaigns as much as they can but we had a feeling something like this might come up, so it hasn't come completely out of the blue.

"What we've had now is absolute confirmation from the IOC that this is definitely going to happen.

"But squash is a fast-action sport so I guess we'll just have to plan our attack and deal with it.

"Everything will have to be sped up, and we'll have to be ready in June, but we've been preparing for that for so long hopefully we'll put our best foot forward."

I think we'll win so I'm not concerned at all

The new plan was announced on the first day of the IOC's executive board meeting in Denver.

Squash and karate narrowly failed to gain a place in the programme for London 2012 at the IOC's 117th annual session in Singapore.

With baseball and softball removed from the schedule that left only 26 core sports, two less than the three previous Games. The IOC is eager to return that number to 28 but without unduly increasing the cost or size of the Games.

To increase the chances of this happening the rules were tweaked in 2006 - whereas karate and squash needed the support of two thirds of the IOC's membership in 2005, they would only require simple majorities at the 121st IOC session in Denmark.

Both these sports and baseball and softball have made the IOC's shortlist for Olympic status in 2016, as well as golf, roller sports and rugby sevens.

S Korea beat Cuba in what may have been the last Olympic baseball event

Delegations from the governing bodies of each of these sports made initial presentations to the IOC last November. They were then asked to complete a rigorous 80-question audit of their sport's suitability for the Olympics by February.

The next key date was supposed to be the IOC's executive board meeting in Lausanne on 15 June, with the final decision being made by the 108 voting members of the IOC.

They will still get their say - and could vote to include no new sports in 2016 - but the IOC's executive board will narrow their options to just two at its third meeting of the year on 13 August in Berlin.

While this will clearly streamline the agenda for the Copenhagen session, which also votes on which city will host the 2016 Games, it may annoy many of the candidate sports, particularly as they have all poured money into high-profile campaigns to gain Olympic status.

Many will also be irritated that their case will not be heard by the wider IOC electorate.

The IOC's executive board is comprised of the Olympic movement's president Jacques Rogge, four vice-presidents and 10 IOC members. Apart from the president, they are elected for four-year terms.

Among the current members are former Olympic fencing champion Thomas Bach of Germany and Namibia's former World 200m champion Frankie Fredericks.

But World Squash Federation president N. Ramachandran dismissed concerns that the executive board was wielding too much influence on this subject, saying the "ultimate decision" still rested with the IOC's members.

"The executive board will make a recommendation but the members can still say no. So there are two hurdles to clear," he told BBC Sport from Denver.

"But I think we'll win so I'm not concerned at all."

BBC Sport

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