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Make your case IOC to go ahead with vote on expelling sports for 2008Posted: Tuesday November 26, 2002 6:39 PM
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A vote on cutting baseball, softball and modern pentathlon from the 2008 Olympics will go ahead. Despite pressure from some members to postpone the decision or make it apply to the games of 2012, the International Olympic Committee executive board said the vote would proceed as scheduled Friday. The IOC board also said Tuesday that, from now on, the sports program will be thoroughly reviewed every four years after each edition of the games -- meaning all sports will have to prove they deserve to stay. On Friday, leaders of three endangered sports will be given 10 minutes each to make their case to the full IOC general assembly. The 117 members will then vote by secret ballot, one sport at a time. A simple majority is required to delete a sport. It appears unlikely the delegates will vote any of the three sports out. And IOC director general Francois Carrard said Tuesday the executive board believes there is nothing much wrong with the current sports program. "The Olympic program as a whole has generally well stood the test of the years and in itself is a good program," he said. The IOC program commission recommended in August that the three sports be dropped, starting with the 2008 Beijing Games. It said golf and rugby should be added. This week's vote had been thrown into doubt, however, by a rule in the Olympic Charter suggesting the sports program can't be changed less than seven years before the games. The Beijing Olympics are six years away. But lawyers from the Court of Arbitration for Sport told the IOC there were no legal obstacles to cutting sports for 2008. Many members have pushed for the vote to be put off until next year for further study. But Carrard said the sports had sufficient time over three months to lobby their case and had made constructive proposals in response to the program commission's report. "The executive board considers due process has been granted and exercised in this case," Carrard said. The board rejected one proposal in the program report -- that, in future, only the board should decide whether to add or delete sports. The board ruled this should remain a "fundamental and core right" of the full membership. In a change from past practice, the executive board is not taking a position on the sports proposals or making any recommendation to the assembly. "The board considers the decisions are so fundamental and so important that each member should be in a position to vote without any pressure," Carrard said. The decision was led by IOC president Jacques Rogge, who succeeded Juan Antonio Samaranch last year. While Samaranch would have worked to push through his own agenda, Rogge is stepping back and leaving the decision up to the members. "He said it's important the members feel it's their privilege, it's their right," Carrard said. "We're in a totally new situation. This is the way the president wants it, to take the proposals straight to the floor." Carrard said it was possible delegates could raise objections and seek to put off the vote. "The session has wide powers," he said. "There may be proposals from the floor. Essentially the session is the master." Friday's vote will affect the chances of golf or rugby being added to the program. Any vote on adding sports is scheduled for next July's IOC assembly in Prague, Czech Republic. But a sport will be added only if another is dropped. In another development, the IOC board accepted changes to the format of the three-day equestrian event for the 2004 Athens Games. The event is among those proposed for exclusion starting in 2008. Under pressure to make changes, the international equestrian federation proposed a reduced format that includes cutting part of the cross-country program. Under the new program, the dressage and jumping disciplines will be maintained but the steeplechase, road and track elements of the cross country will disappear. Only the cross-country obstacle course will be kept in place. |
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