IOC To Evaluate Sports For 2020 Berth
The International Olympic Committee has named the evaluation events that they will attend for each of the seven disciplines bidding for a spot on the 2020 Olympic Games programme.
The IOC will attend a major championship for each of the seven sports before the end of the year to compile a report on the merits of the sport and its bid.
Baseball and softball have put in joint bid, along with climbing, karate, roller sports, squash, wakeboard and wushu also hoping for inclusion.
The IOC will then make a final decision on which sport, if any, is to include at its session in Buenos Aires in September next year.
Softball has already faced an evaluation after the IOC visited the 2012 Softball Women’s World Championships in Whitehorse, Canada.
The evaluation came before softball and baseball officially announced that they would put forward a joint bid for the 2020 Olympics, with baseball receiving its IOC visit at the continental qualifying tournament for the 2013 World Baseball Classic in Regensburg, Germany.
Roller sports will be evaluated first at the 2012 World Speed Skating Championships in Ascoli Piceno, Italy in September, while climbing will be evaluated at the XII IFSC World Championships in Paris, France shortly after.
Wushu will also be visited in September at the Fifth World Junior Wushu Championships in Macau, China.
Wakeboard will be assessed at the Cable Wakeboard World Championships in Manila, Philippines in November, while squash will be called upon at the Hong Kong Squash Open in Hong Kong, China at the end of November.
The only sport that is yet to have a confirmed IOC inspection event is karate but, according to media reports, it is likely that the IOC will select the World Senior Championships in Paris, France – also in November.
A maximum of 28 sports are allowed at the Olympic Games and this will be reached at Rio 2016 with the inclusion of golf and rugby sevens.
However, it is highly likely that at least one of the seven sports will be included in the 2020 Olympic sports programme with the IOC set to remove at least one discipline currently on the sports programme.
Modern pentathlon and taekwondo are amongst the sports rumoured to face the biggest risk of being dropped from the Olympic programme.
