From baseball to rugby union there’s no shortage of sports anxious to win - or regain - a place on the Olympic programme. Yet which will make the grade? Will roller sport’s youth-focus appeal to the sometimes conservative International Olympic Committee, or will the low cost of karate see a fourth martial art added to the programme?
The five that failed to make the Olympic grade in 2005 are back for consideration. Golf, karate, roller sport, rugby and squash are all hoping that revisions to the IOC voting process will ensure their inclusion for 2016. Yet, with baseball and softball also in contention after their exclusion from London 2012 and a limit of 28 sports imposed by the IOC, only two spots are up for grabs in 2016 meaning that most Olympic hopefuls will remain just that.
The IOC also recently proposed cutting the number of core permanent sports down to 25 from the present 26. While this will mean that up to three places will be available for potential contenders on a Games by Games basis after 2016, it is certain that those recently excluded will be campaigning for a quick return. And while federations seeking to join the programme may receive a boost from being home-grown in a host city (potentially softball or baseball were the 2016 Games to go to Chicago), sports will still have to prove their universality and quality of competition, leaving the door open in the future for possible entrants such as triathlon and cricket.
To make it easier for both newcomers and returnees to be added, the IOC changed its rules to require only a simple majority instead of the old two-thirds vote to join. It is hoped that this will allow the committee to avoid the debacle of 2005, when it cut baseball and softball but could not accrue enough votes to replace them with alternative sports. And, with an ever-aging audience for some Olympic sports, the pressure is on for the Olympics to engage with a new generation of sports fans, and fast.
Erskine McCullough, a former Olympic writer for AFP and current advisor on Olympic politics, does not envy the task facing the IOC. “It’s a case of everyone wanting change, but not in their backyard” he explains. “IOC members clearly realise that change must occur, but it is an intensely slow, political and conservative process. Members change and with that preferences for sports change. The IOC is also aware that it has got to be sure it knows what it is doing as it can only be changed every four years. “Sports that may be considered on the edge of exclusion are also likely to put pressure on the IOC from the inside. It is much harder for sports to get in, then for those on the list to be pushed out.”
Over the next 18 months the federations must prove to the IOC that their sport deserves one of the coveted spots. At stake is not just unparalleled global exposure, funding and development opportunities, but the chance for the federation to offer its athletes the chance to participate in the ‘greatest show on earth’ and achieve, perhaps the one honour money can’t buy, an Olympic medal.
