So the IOC kicked softball and baseball out of the London Olympics. Too bad, because it would've been fun to see Japan pull its all-stars out of the US league teams to field a kick-ass national squad. So much for the American pastime, huh?
Instead, they looked at some other replacement sports, including karate. But in a political mess, here's what happened, according to AP:
In a farcical display of bureaucracy, IOC members went through seven rounds of voting to decide which two of the five would-be Olympic sports should be put up for a vote to give them Olympic status.Having selected squash and karate, the members then overwhelmingly rejected their bids to join the Olympic program.
The other three candidates were rugby sevens, golf, and roller sports. "Roller sports"? What the hell is that? Skateboarding? If so, that would put a different spin on the whiners who complained that baseball and softball were booted because they are "native American sports". Huh? I don't remember reading anything about the Navajo or Hopi doing batting practice, other than to whack those durn homesteaders.
But seriously, you've got to figure that the US would dominate skateboarding, rollerblading, and other "roller sports". Can you see Tony Hawk atop the podium, with a string of gold medals around his neck?
Posted by jameshom at July 8, 2005 10:06 AM | TrackBack