Taxman
07-08-2005, 06:52 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050708/ts_alt_afp/olysports_050708130022 (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050708/ts_alt_afp/olysports_050708130022)
Softball and Baseball axed from Olympics
1 hour, 50 minutes ago
London 2012 will have only 26 sports instead of 28 after softball and baseball were thrown out of the Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and no new sports were chosen to replace them.
The expulsion, decided by the IOC rank and file during a secret vote on all 28 sports that make up the Olympic programme, allowed two new sports to come in but the members opposed replacing them.
The attempt to replace softball and baseball with squash and karate ended in controversy when the IOC rank and file firmly said 'NO'
Altogether five sports were vying for the two spots - golf, roller sports, rugby sevens, squash and karate.
But although the IOC members decided that squash and karate would be the best two to be in the Olympics they refused to give them the two-thirds majority to make it possible.
Softball federation president Don Porter was stunned by the decision.
Three years ago at the Mexico City Session, IOC president Jacques Rogge attempted to have baseball, softball and modern pentathlon cut from the Olympics but the plan was firmly rejected by the IOC members.
"It's payback for Mexico City. They wanted us out then. It has taken them three years and they got us," said Porter.
"We thought that we had a lot of support," he said. "The members told us we were getting support, but obviously we weren't.
"I don't want to say it's an anti-US thing, but they are two native American sports," he added.
Aldo Notari, the Italian president of the international baseball federation, admitted the absence of the top players in the Olympics was to blame for the vote.
"One is not happy when one is in this situation. The problem with baseball is the best players are not going to the Olympics Games. But baseball is still in Beijing and it is still necessary to work for the future in 2016."
The expulsion will cost the two sports millions of dollars.
All Olympic sports share the television revenue generated by the Games. After the Athens Games softball and baseball received an estimated seven million dollars each.
ASOIF -- the body representing the summer Games sports -- had bitterly fought Rogge's plan to change the Olympic programme.
"You don't change a winning team," said ASOIF president and IOC member Denis Oswald. "Once you take one piece out to put another piece in, you don't know what the consequences will be."
But his plea was rejected by the IOC members.
"Needless to say, these sports are very, very disappointed," said Rogge.
"However, I have to emphasise the fact that they should not fear this purge. The fact is that they shall not be included in the programme of the 2012 Olympic Games, but it does not disqualify them forever as Olympic sports."
"I would like to invite the leaders of these sports that will not be included in the programme to make their very best efforts during the coming years so as to be able to convince the session that they deserve to come back to the Olympic Games in 2016. We shall support them in their efforts."
The last time a sport was removed from the Olympics was polo in 1936.
Softball and Baseball axed from Olympics
1 hour, 50 minutes ago
London 2012 will have only 26 sports instead of 28 after softball and baseball were thrown out of the Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and no new sports were chosen to replace them.
The expulsion, decided by the IOC rank and file during a secret vote on all 28 sports that make up the Olympic programme, allowed two new sports to come in but the members opposed replacing them.
The attempt to replace softball and baseball with squash and karate ended in controversy when the IOC rank and file firmly said 'NO'
Altogether five sports were vying for the two spots - golf, roller sports, rugby sevens, squash and karate.
But although the IOC members decided that squash and karate would be the best two to be in the Olympics they refused to give them the two-thirds majority to make it possible.
Softball federation president Don Porter was stunned by the decision.
Three years ago at the Mexico City Session, IOC president Jacques Rogge attempted to have baseball, softball and modern pentathlon cut from the Olympics but the plan was firmly rejected by the IOC members.
"It's payback for Mexico City. They wanted us out then. It has taken them three years and they got us," said Porter.
"We thought that we had a lot of support," he said. "The members told us we were getting support, but obviously we weren't.
"I don't want to say it's an anti-US thing, but they are two native American sports," he added.
Aldo Notari, the Italian president of the international baseball federation, admitted the absence of the top players in the Olympics was to blame for the vote.
"One is not happy when one is in this situation. The problem with baseball is the best players are not going to the Olympics Games. But baseball is still in Beijing and it is still necessary to work for the future in 2016."
The expulsion will cost the two sports millions of dollars.
All Olympic sports share the television revenue generated by the Games. After the Athens Games softball and baseball received an estimated seven million dollars each.
ASOIF -- the body representing the summer Games sports -- had bitterly fought Rogge's plan to change the Olympic programme.
"You don't change a winning team," said ASOIF president and IOC member Denis Oswald. "Once you take one piece out to put another piece in, you don't know what the consequences will be."
But his plea was rejected by the IOC members.
"Needless to say, these sports are very, very disappointed," said Rogge.
"However, I have to emphasise the fact that they should not fear this purge. The fact is that they shall not be included in the programme of the 2012 Olympic Games, but it does not disqualify them forever as Olympic sports."
"I would like to invite the leaders of these sports that will not be included in the programme to make their very best efforts during the coming years so as to be able to convince the session that they deserve to come back to the Olympic Games in 2016. We shall support them in their efforts."
The last time a sport was removed from the Olympics was polo in 1936.