Karate inclusion in the Olympic Games

August D-Day for Olympic hopefuls

Karate, Golf and Rugby Sevens were among seven sports who presented their cases in February for inclusion in the Olympic Games.

The sports for London 2012 have already been decided and these seven have to wait until next October to find out if they have a place in the 2016 Games.

Baseball and Softball made bids for a return as both were dropped from the 2012 programme, Baseball because many of the top players did not compete. Squash, Roller Sports and Karate also made presentations.

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.

Each sport had a one-hour slot, with Baseball making the first pitch in the closed-door presentations in Lausanne, Switzerland. To win reinstatement for 2016, Baseball must show the IOC it can deliver major league players to an Olympic tournament. The Baseball delegation was asked about its ability to deliver major league players to a 16-team Olympic tournament in August 2016 - right in the middle of the US major league season.

Softball - a women's sport in the Olympics - is battling to return to the Games after missing out by just a single vote in 2005.

Golf, which was last played at the Olympics in 1904, proposes to return with men's and women's tournaments. The golf delegation, including USPGA executive Ty Votaw and Peter Dawson of the Royal and Ancient - Golf's governing body outside the US - brought the trophy presented in St Louis 104 years ago.

The World Karate Federation, comprising 180 national governing bodies, proposes to award 10 gold medals in five classes for each of the men's and women's competitions.

Meanwhile the International Federation for Roller Sports hopes to stage races on city streets for men and women, but not rink hockey or skateboarding.

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.

Finally, the World Squash Federation hopes that television-friendly, glass-enclosed courts can counter the sport's reputation as one that struggles to translate the speed of play to viewers

The IOC has set a limit of 28 sports in 2016, meaning the sports will fight over the last two available slots.

The next key date was supposed to be the IOC's Executive Board meeting in Lausanne on 15 June, for the sports to make presentations before going to Copenhagen for the vote in October with the final decision being made by the 108 IOC voting members, but the International Olympic Committee has now opted to cut five sports at August's Executive Board meeting. The new plan was announced on the first day of the IOC's Executive Board meeting in Denver.

Karate and Squash 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.

They will still get their say - and could vote to include no new sports in 2016 as they did for 2012 - 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.

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