International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams says no progress has been made since then and “in these circumstances it is unlikely the situation will be resolved before the games in Rio and we believe Kuwait will remain suspended”. “That is for us the No. 1 priority”.
Advertisement
As part of sweeping reforms initiated by IOC president Thomas Bach in December 2014, future Olympic hosts are being offered the chance to bring in sports that are trendy in their countries to boost ratings and attract greater sponsorship.
Games organizers also wanted sports that were already well established in Japan so new venues would not need to be built and add to ballooning costs while also shoring up local support for the Olympics.
The Olympic fate of Russia’s track and field athletes – suspended by the IAAF, athletics’ world governing body – is to be determined on June 17 after their suspension. That sanction was imposed in November after a World Anti-Doping Agency commission detailed state-sponsored doping in Russian Federation. “By now I do not see any reasons [to ban Russian athletes from the Olympic Games]”, Mutko told journalists. “It’s wrong to speculate on what we may or may not do”.
Its budget for pre-games testing ahead of the Rio Games will be doubled and there will be a “special focus” on countries whose anti-doping program is non-compliant with global rules, naming Russia, Kenya and Mexico. Kenya, a powerhouse in long-distance running, is now adopting anti-doping legislation it hopes will make it compliant. These sports, and any others that are recognized by the International Olympic Committee, would have to be considered separately for the 2024, and subsequent Games.
More than 50 new doping cases have come to light so far from the reanalysis of samples from the Beijing and London Olympics.
“Over the last decade, and with the merger of baseball and softball at the worldwide level, baseball and softball stakeholders have worked to solidify the gender-balanced global bat-and-ball sport”, Flynn added, which now, according to published statistics from the WBSC, represents 65 million athletes from 213 National Federation and Associate Members in over 140 countries.
The sports, which would add 18 events and 474 athletes, were recommended for inclusion previous year by Tokyo organizers. If approved, the Tokyo Games would feature 33 sports and about 11,000 athletes, compared to the standard 28 sports and 10,500 athletes.
International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates said the five represent a “good balance between sports that are very popular in Japan and those better engaging youth”. That agenda encourages innovation in the Olympic programme and gives host cities the option of suggesting new sports and events for inclusion in their edition of the Games.
Twenty-four athletes are likely to represent Team Singapore at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, one more than the 23-strong contingent at the London 2012 Games, the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) said on Tuesday (May 31).
Baseball would have a six-team tournament, short of the eight-team format sought by officials from the sport’s global federation.
Japan’s women won softball gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, completing a full set of medals after reaching the podium in 2000 and 2004.
“Validation is always important”, USA Softball executive director Craig Cress said.
The final vote to approve the entire package will happen at the IOC Session scheduled for the beginning of August. It’s not one that we were really looking for, that endorsement from them.
Advertisement
Nuzman said leading athletes such as Usain Bolt, Rafael Nadal, Neymar and members of the USA basketball team have said they have no worries about going to Rio.
