Sevens To Swap World Cup For Olympics
The International Rugby Board has stated that it will scrap the Rugby Sevens World Cup should the format gain entry to the Olympics in 2016.
Rugby is one of seven sports competing to be granted a slot in the 2016 Games with the IOC to make a decision in its Copenhagen session in October. The other six sports in the frame are baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, softball and squash.
The Sevens World Cup is staged every four years but the event scheduled for the spring of 2017 would be wiped from the calendar to concede priority to Olympic status.
The offer, it is understood, could cost the IRB up to $20m in lost television, commercial and ticketing revenue but president Bernard Lapasset explained that a prize of far greater – even incalculable – value to the sport was at stake.
Lapasset said: ‘We think this shows how serious we are about our Olympic bid. Right now we have 116 nations but we need to grow more around the world and being a part of the Olympic family would help us achieve that.
‘We believe that sevens is a perfect fit for the Games since the competition can be played over just two or three days. However, we also believe that we can bring to the Games the particular spirit of the sport: we play hard but off the field we work and live as one.
‘You could see this at our Sevens World Cup in Dubai earlier this year when all the players – both men and women – and officials were all staying in the same hotels. We think that sevens promotes exactly the spirit and values of the Olympic Games themselves.’
The IRB has held reported informal and positive talks with representatives of all the four bid cities for 2016 – Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
All seven bid sports will present their case to the evaluation commission of the IOC in Lausanne on 15th June. The executive board will then decide, in Berlin in mid-August, on a recommendation to the IOC session in Copenhagen.
The most likely process is the recommendation of a vote or votes on the addition of two sports to the 2016 Games.
