After the press conference was rescheduled twice, IOC president Jacques Rogge, a former rugby player, announced that Rugby (sevens) and Golf will be for consideration to be voted into the 2016 Olympic program at the IOC congress in Copenhagen, Denmark in October. With this decision Baseball and Softball are left out and have to wait until the 2020 Olympics. Even if Rugby (sevens) and Golf don’t get enough votes in Copenhagen, Baseball and Softball will not be eligible for 2016. Rogge said that the two sports Rugby (sevens) and Golf would bring more women to the Olympic Games in comparison to Softball.
According to the twitter feed of www.insidethegame.com, there were four rounds of voting. Roller Sports was the first of the seven sports to get eliminated in round one. Rugby got the necessary nine votes in the second round, where Squash was eliminated. Baseball followed in round three. Golf finally made it in round four with nine votes, Karate and Softball received three, respective two votes in this phase. Interestingly Golf nearly didn’t make the cut in round one and two with just one vote. Baseball had two votes in each of the first two rounds and one in the third. Never had a real chance.
Check back to Mister-Baseball.com, as we will have reactions from the IBAF and the ISF.