IOC panel proposes eliminating baseball, softball

By Stephen Wilson, Associated Press, 08/28/02

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- An International Olympic Committee panel has recommended that baseball, softball and modern pentathlon be dropped from the Summer Games. The panel also proposes adding golf and rugby.

The IOC program commission made the recommendations in a report being delivered Wednesday to the IOC executive board, according to Olympic officials familiar with the document.

Several disciplines -- including Greco-Roman wrestling, the three-day event in equestrian and the walk in track and field -- also could considered for elimination.

The commission has been studying ways to modernize the Olympic program, which consists of 28 summer sports and 300 events.

Getting rid of baseball and softball would be a blow to the United States, which won gold medals in both sports at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Baseball, a former demonstration sport, became a full medal event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. However, unlike other sports which have attracted the world's top professionals, Olympic baseball has failed to include top major league players, since the season overlaps with the games.

Still, the IOC would be making a mistake by eliminating the sport, said Paul Seiler, executive director of USA baseball, based in Tucson, Ariz.

"Baseball is a positive sport for the Olympic program, and an important sport," he said. "We drew over a million in Atlanta and sold a lot of tickets in Sydney as well."

Softball was added to the Olympics in Atlanta, but its long-term status has always been in doubt. The international softball federation is headed by an American, Don Porter.

IOC officials stressed that no final decisions have been made. First, the executive board must accept the recommendations, and it won't finish reviewing them until Thursday. Then, the proposals would go to the full IOC assembly, where a two-thirds majority is required for approval.

The next IOC session will be in Mexico City in November.

The revised Olympic program would be put in place for the 2008 Games in Beijing.

For years, under former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC studied the possibility of dropping sports but never did so. Instead, the IOC continuously added new sports.

Jacques Rogge, who took over as IOC president last year, has stressed that adding any new sports would now require eliminating others.

"The reason we want to review the program is not the numbers," Rogge said Tuesday. "We still want to keep the numbers at around 10,500 athletes, 28 sports and 300 events. We want to see if the composition of the program can be improved."

Asked about the criteria for a sport being included in the Olympics, Rogge cited "popularity, universality, that it not cost too much, not hurt athletes' health, and bring necessary diversity."

There would be 27 sports on the program if baseball, softball and modern pentathlon were dropped, and rugby and golf were added. Officials said an unspecified third new sport was also under consideration.

Golf and rugby have been among more than two dozen sports lobbying to become Olympic sports.

Golf, which was in the Olympics in 1900 and 1904, was proposed for inclusion in the Atlanta Games but was blocked because of controversy over the membership policy of the Augusta National club, which has no women members.

The addition of golf would raise the prospect of Tiger Woods playing for a gold medal in 2008 in China.

Rugby was played in the Olympics in 1900, 1908 1920 and 1924. Rogge is a former Belgian international rugby union player. The seven-a-side version is proposed for the Olympics.

Elimination from the Olympic program can represent a death blow for smaller sports, which rely on millions of dollars in revenues from Olympic television and marketing revenues for their existence.

Modern pentathlon, an Olympic sport since 1912, has long been on the possible chopping block. The sport consists of fencing, swimming, shooting, horseback riding and running. The vice president of the federation is Samaranch's son, Juan Antonio Jr.

Greco-Roman wrestling, a discipline of wrestling along with freestyle, has been in the Olympics since 1896.

Meanwhile, the IOC rejected the addition of several sports, disciplines and events for the Winter Games. The board followed the program commission's recommendations and turned down ski mountaineering, ski orienteering, natural track luge, team luge and ski flying.