Karate Olympic Bid History

Olympic Bid History

World Karate Federation General Secretary George Yerolimpos released a document to all WKF members on 23rd April 2008 stating that Karate, along with Rugby, Squash, Golf and Roller Sports, has once again been accepted as one of the Recognised Sports by the International Olympic Committee and will once again be vying for inclusion into the summer Olympic Programme.

So what does this mean for Karate?

In November 2002, the IOC Session in Mexico City approved the principle of a systematic review of the Olympic Programme and mandated the Olympic Programme Commission to lead the process. In order to fulfil this mission, the Olympic Programme Commission developed a set of criteria to be used in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each sport and the value that each sport adds to the Olympic Programme. Following consultation with the International Federations the final list of 33 criteria was proposed to the IOC Session, which was approved in August 2004 in Athens.

In September 2004, a questionnaire reflecting these criteria was sent to the 28 summer Olympic Federations and to the five Recognised Federations selected by the Executive Board for further study, Karate being included as one of the recognised sports. In December 2004 the completed questionnaires were returned to the IOC Sports Department. The Olympic Programme Commission also took into account the information gathered through the Sports Observation Programme that was conducted in 2004 and 2005 for all the 28 summer Olympic Sports and the five sports governed by the recognised Federations.

The IOC has a mandate not to exceed 28 sports for the summer Olympic Programme. In order for a new Olympic sport to be included, firstly it must be recognised by the IOC, secondly there must be less than 28 sports included in the summer Olympic Programme presenting a possible opening, thirdly the IOC members would need to vote on which sport/sports to nominate for inclusion into the Olympic Programme from the recognised Federations and finally a IOC member vote on the actual inclusion of the nominated sport in to the summer Olympic Programme with the new sport/sports receiving a two-thirds majority vote.

In Singapore 2005 at the 117th IOC Session, the report was presented to the IOC members by the Olympic Programme Commission. The members made history by voting for change for the first time in almost 70 years. All of the then current summer Olympic sports were voted on for continued inclusion. All but two sports gained enough support for their continued inclusion, Baseball and Softball failing to gain the majority vote and were subsequently removed from the Olympic Programme although they do remain on the list of Olympic sports and are therefore eligible for possible inclusion at future Olympic Games. This opened the door to elect two new sports into the Olympic Programme for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The initial round of voting to nominate sports for inclusion into the 2012 summer Olympic Programme resulted in Squash and Karate being put forward. The subsequent final IOC members vote for these two sports to be included resulted in neither receiving the required two-thirds majority vote for inclusion. Therefore the 2012 summer Olympics remains two sports short with 26 summer sports being included.

As a consequence of this hurdle to include new sports into future Olympic Programmes, a decision taken by the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City, was that the IOC subsequently change its constitution. While it took only a simple majority for a sport to be removed from the programme, two-thirds was needed to add a new sport. The new rules simplify the voting procedure by requiring a simple majority for both inclusion and exclusion.

For the 2016 Games of the Olympiad, the 26 core sports from London 2012 will be proposed. The maximum number of sports included in the programme remains capped at 28. In the future, the Session will cast a bloc vote for 25 core summer sports. These 25 core sports will need a simple majority to be included in the Olympic programme. If no majority is reached to vote for the core, additional rounds of votes by the Session, determined by the President, will be implemented.

IOC President Jacques Rogge has been complimented this new system for "providing a better flexibility to change the Olympic programme through the introduction of up to three new sports".

So will Karate finally make the Olympics? Well as the votes show last time, both Squash and Karate only gained around one third of the votes available, well short of the two-thirds they actually required. However, there was criticism at the time that two sports were dropped from the programme and not replaced and it looks likely that three sports are to be nominated for inclusion next time, so maybe there will be more pressure to include Karate next time round, especially if Tokyo is selected as the 2016 Summer Olympic Host City!

The above article is courtesy of the English Karate Federation.

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