Australian rugby and golf officials have welcomed the return of the two sports to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The International Olympic Committee voted on Friday to include both sports on the program for the 2016 and 2020 summer Games.
Each received majority support in separate votes by the IOC after leading athletes and officials from both gave presentations to press their case – including a video-taped message from Tiger Woods.
Golf was approved 63-27 with two abstentions. Sevens Rugby was voted in 81-8 with one abstention.
Rugby will organise a four-day tournament for 12 men’s and women’s teams.
Golf will stage a 72-hole strokeplay tournament for men and women, with 60 players in each field.
The vote was a reversal of the IOC’s decision four years ago to reject golf and rugby’s inclusion in the 2012 London Games.
The Australian Rugby Union immediately welcomed the historic decision.
“This is a wonderful moment for our game, and a momentous decision by the IOC,” ARU boss John O’Neill said in a statement.
“There is enormous status attached to being an Olympic sport.
” … All our players, men and women, from those at the grassroots right through to the elite levels, can now have Olympic Games selection as an ambition. They can dream of climbing a medal dais, of receiving a gold medal.
“I know the younger players in our Wallabies squad will see it as a challenge to force their way into the sevens squad in 2016.”
World Cup-winning Australian women’s sevens captain Cheryl Soon was in Copenhagen as part of an International Rugby Board delegation that delivered a 20-minute presentation to the IOC assembly prior to the ballot.
“We want to play alongside the world’s top athletes,” she told the gathering.
Golf Australia CEO Stephen Pitt said the decision would allow golf to introduce itself to a whole new audience.
“The Olympic stage will give golf an unparalleled level of attention and interest and allows us to highlight the benefits golf brings to individuals and the wider community,” Pitt said in a statement.
ALPG CEO Warren Sevil added: “Women’s development and participation was a specific consideration of the IOC in determining which sports were included from 2016, and we are now ready to reap the benefits through attracting more juniors, girls in particular, to golf.”
Rugby and golf both made their Olympic debuts at the second modern games in Paris in 1900.
Golf was only played again at the 1904 St Louis Games, while rugby featured three more times, making its last appearance in the 1924 Paris Olympics.
Australia competed just once in the rugby competitions, in 1908, and won the gold medal.
Friday’s vote was also a victory for Jacques Rogge, the IOC president who was re-elected to a final four-year term just hours earlier and who had supported the sports’ inclusion.
“Time will show your decision (on the new sports) was very wise,” Rogge said.
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