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FYI: Who decides which sports make it into the Olympics?

Icelandic folk wrestling. Gliding. Finnish baseball. Survey a list of the sports that have made an appearance at the Olympic Games and a couple of questions come to mind. What were they thinking? And how can a popular game such as rugby be dropped from the itinerary altogether while korfball and pelote Basque (whatever they are) continue to enjoy official recognition?

Appearances aside, there is a method, of a sort, to the madness. The power to pick which pastimes receive the Olympic seal of approval rests with the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee (IOC), the same all-powerful body that decides which cities get to host the games and how to deal with doping allegations.

To understand why certain events get the thumbs-up, it's necessary to grasp the IOC's unique view of what actually constitutes a sport. In the committee's eyes a sport is only worthy of the name if it has an international federation behind it that is endorsed by the IOC and the game's national authorities, such as the International Boxing Association or Federation Internationale de Football Association (Fifa). There are 35 sports on the current Olympic programme, with the vast majority appearing at the Summer Olympic Games. Some of these are sub-divided into 'disciplines', which in many cases look like separate sports. Diving and swimming are both disciplines of the 'aquatic' sport, for example, while the 'skiing' sport includes ski jumping and snowboarding. From these disciplines come the 'events' that result in medals being handed out.

A lot of the disciplines on the Olympic programme have been there for more than a century and getting an event added to the list is no easy task. Generally, international federations will push the IOC to introduce an event or discipline under an existing sport, but they still have to meet certain criteria. For a sport to be included in the Summer Olympics the IOC has to be persuaded that it is widely practised by men in at least 75 countries over four continents and by women in at least 40 countries across three continents. New events have to be pencilled into the Olympic programme at least seven years before they can make an official debut. The bar for entry to the Winter Olympics, which are less crowded, is slightly lower.

Complicating matters is the fact there's a list of 30 sports that are 'recognised' by the IOC, including chess, surfing, sumo and tug of war. Most of these were originally demonstration events, which the IOC often allows Olympic host countries to stage during the Games to promote their homegrown athletic offerings. These don't initially result in the awarding of medals, but once a sport makes it onto the 'recognised' list it can make another appearance at the Games, subject to a vote by IOC members.

Since getting a sport staged as a demonstration event is regarded as a back door to permanent Olympic status, host countries choose demonstration games carefully and lobby hard, but they don't always succeed. China has been asking for wushu to be included in the Olympics for some time, after all, South Korea managed to push taekwondo onto the agenda after trial runs at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But Beijing won't see its martial art even demonstrated during this summer's Games; the IOC decided only to allow a wushu tournament to be staged on the sidelines of the main event. All sports are obviously not created equal.

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