Rugby Sevens, golf set for 2016 Olympic Games after IOC vote
From Pirate Irwin in Berlin, Germany
August 13, 2009 The 2016 Olympic Games will almost certainly feature Sevens rugby and golf after the International Olympic Olympic Committee executive board voted for their inclusion in Berlin on Thursday.
But the decision, made by secret ballot, is not binding as it has to be rubber-stamped by the entire IOC membership in a vote in Copenhagen in October.
The 2016 Games will feature 28 sports if golf and Sevens are included.
Rugby had always been a front-runner, as rugby powerbrokers, after failing in their bid for inclusion in the 2012 Games in London, mounted an aggressive and effective campaign.
International Rugby Board president Bernard Lapasset had made the sport's Olympic inclusion the priority of his first term of office.
Golf, meanwhile, attracted a certain amount of scepticism, even from golf lovers, as it was considered "too elitist".
Also, as Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy declared at one point, players "are not members of a team, we are individuals and we decide where we play".
Softball produced a passionate campaign led by Korean War veteran Don Porter, who was stunned when the sport was voted out of the Games in Singapore in 2005.
Agence France-Presse
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23218,00.html
Sevens will bring party atmosphere to Olympics, says Lapasset
August 14, 2009 - 8:19AM
Rugby Union sevens would bring a festival and party atmosphere to the 2016 Olympic Games should it be voted in by the majority of 100 plus International Olympic Committee (IOC) members in October, says rugby supremo Bernard Lapasset .
The Frenchman was speaking after seeing his dream of bringing rugby union into the Olympics take a huge step forward after the IOC's Executive Board voted it in as the first of the two sports to present to the members in Copenhagen.
Rugby, which last appeared at the Olympics in 1924, easily made it through garnering the required majority in the second round of the vote for the first sport with nine.
The next was softball with two, though, it was to be golf which would win the vote for the second sport.
"Sevens is a festival sport which brings a party atmosphere to the stadium," said Lapasset, who took over the presidency of the International Rugby Board (IRB) from Dr Syd Millar in January 2008.
"It is a sport that speaks to the young and brings them in. It is a sport of young players and young spectators."
Lapasset, formerly head of the French Rugby Federation and who oversaw the 2007 World Cup, said another attraction of the sevens format was its unpredictability and that it was open to many more countries than the fuller, 15-man game.
"It is a sport for all nations," said Lapasset. "Anyone can win. Fiji, Tonga, Kenya, Wales for instance were the surprise winners of the World Cup in Dubai earlier this year."
He added that it was also a sport open to both sexes - Australia winning the women's World Cup in Dubai - which is in itself an attraction to the IOC membership who state that one of their values is that of sexual equality.
"Sevens is recognised by both men and women. It is played in 116 countries. It is a very open and technically and physically and this in itself opens it up to develop globally."
Lapasset said he did not know whether the fact that IOC president Jacques Rogge had played rugby for Belgium had played a role in the outcome.
"All I know is that many IOC members have been made aware of rugby over the past two years and it has seen its reward today (Thursday)."
However, Lapasset was adamant that this was just another step on the way to realising what he has termed the priority of his first term in power and they would not be taking their foot off the accelerator.
"We have to remain vigilant. So far our arguments have convinced the IOC but we mustn't let two years of hard work go to waste at the final stage," he said.
AFP
http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...756428590.html