2016 Olympics May Include Golf and Rugby

On Thursday, International Olympic leaders chose golf and rugby for proposed inclusion in the 2016 Summer Games. They rejected bids from baseball, softball, squash, karate and roller sports.

According to Boston.com, the International Olympic Committee executive board will submit golf and rugby sevens, which is a faster-paced version of rugby, for approval by the entire 106-member assembly in Copenhagen in October.

In June, leaders of the seven bidding sports made presentations to the IOC board in Lausanne, Switzerland, and continued to petition extensively afterwards.

Golf was included in the 1900 Paris Olympics and the 1904 St. Louis Olympics. The backers of the sport said that bringing it back would help the game develop worldwide.

Golf is promoting a 72-hole stroke-play competition for men and women with 60 players in each field. If approved for the Olympics, all major professional tours would change their tournament schedules to avoid conflicts.

Rugby has also appeared in previous Olympics. It was played in four different Olympic games between 1900 and 1924 in the full 15-a-side format. This time around the Rugby is proposing the 7-a-side version for both men and women. The International Rugby Board would forgo its Sevens World Cup to ensure that the Olympics is the sport's top event.

Final approval of golf and rugby will require a majority vote by the full International Olympic Committee in October. It is not clear whether they will be decided on separately or together.

On Thursday the board also gave final approval to the inclusion of women's boxing in the 2012 London Olympics. Boxing had previously been the only summer Olympic sport without a women's category.