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A lot at stake for these games
By John Powers
Globe Staff / June 16, 2009
Though the voting won’t take place until October, this is a crucial week for the four remaining bid cities for the 2016 Olympics and the seven sports vying for two places on the program. For the first time, the vast majority of International Olympic Committee members (an estimated 94 of 107) will get briefings and a chance to question the candidate cities at the Swiss headquarters in Lausanne well before they have to make a decision at their annual session. Unlike at voting time, this week’s activities will have “no heads of states, no flashy videos, no presentation of fancy athletes,” says IOC president Jacques Rogge.
Still, it’s a priceless chance for the contenders to do some lobbying and for the sports federations to make their case to the IOC’s executive board, which will choose two of them in August for the main body to approve this fall. While baseball and softball, both lopped off after Beijing, have gotten most of the attention, golf and seven-a-side rugby have the inside track, according to the IOC program commission’s evaluation. With the IOC reportedly preferring one individual and one team sport open to both genders, those two both fit the bill, particularly considering the criteria – wide appeal, universality (i.e. practiced globally), inexpensive infrastructure, no doping.
Golf, which last was on the program in 1904, would offer 72-hole competition for 60 men and women with the world’s top 15 players given automatic berths, would arrange its tour schedules around the Games and employ nearby courses. “To be the first gold medal winner in 112 years? Definitely,” said Colin Montgomerie, who says he’d play at 53. Rugby, dropped after 1924, would have tournaments for both genders using existing stadia. Each of the other five sports has a drawback. Softball and baseball require separate (and unique) facilities. Karate would be the third martial art (judo and taekwondo) on the program, squash televises poorly and roller sports aren’t universal. If the membership turns thumbs-down on the two proposed sports, the others will be reconsidered.