Associated Press

Singapore, July 8:

Baseball and softball, two sports invented in America, were dropped from the programme for the 2012 Olympics in London — the first sports cut from the Summer Games in 69 years.

The IOC then rejected the five sports wanting to get in. Each of the 28 existing sports was put to a secret vote by the IOC, and baseball and softball failed to receive a majority to stay on the programme. The other 26 sports made the cut. With two slots now open on the programme, the IOC then voted from a waiting list of five sports: golf, rugby, squash, karate and roller sports. Squash and karate were nominated as the two for inclusion, but were rejected overwhelmingly in final confirmation votes. With a two-thirds margin required for inclusion on the programme, members voted 63-39 against squash and 63-38 against karate. IOC president Jacques Rogge had proposed a show of hands for approval of the two sports, but was booed by the delegates and forced to stick with a secret vote.

It was a stunning conclusion to a long, complex procedure that took nine rounds of voting, and means that 26 sports will be contested at the London Games. Rogge hailed the “very democratic” result, while several members said the rejection of new sports signaled a sharp protest against the whole process. “Nobody was happy with the outcome in the morning, nobody was happy with the result of the afternoon,” senior Canadian member Dick Pound said. “And we’ve lost two sports and done nothing to replace them.” Baseball and softball, which will remain on the programme for the 2008 Beijing Games, are the first sports eliminated from the Olympics since polo in 1936. Baseball, which became a medal sport in 1992, has been vulnerable because of the performance-enhancing drug problem in the United States and top Major League players don’t play in the Olympics.

Softball, a women’s only medal sport since 1996 that the United States has won all three times, has been in danger because of its association with baseball and a perceived lack of global appeal and participation. Dropping the two sports will remove 16 teams and more than 300 athletes from the Olympics. Softball is the only female-only sport in the games. “I feel like somebody who has been thrown out — it’s certainly not a good feeling,” said Aldo Notari, the Italian president of International Baseball Federation. “I don’t think the IOC members know our sport deeply enough. But we’ll continue to survive. We’re looking ahead to Beijing and putting on a good show.”