The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote on Friday to cut baseball, softball and modern pentathlon from the 208 Summer Olympic Games. The IOC says that from now on the Olympic sports program will be thoroughly reviewed every four years after each edition of the Olympic Games.
Before the vote Friday leaders of the three endangered sports will be given 10 minutes to make their case to the IOC General Assembly.
Also, the IOC has approved a reduced format for the three-day equestrian event as proposed by the International Equestrian Federation. The federation suggested the change because it was “deeply concerned” that the IOC would drop all equestrian events completely from the Olympics starting with the 2008 Games.
The IOC said the changes do not mean the event has been saved for Beijing 2008.
The issues will be addressed at the IOC meeting in February.
The IOC has also taken over control of its marketing arm, Meridian Management, as of January 1, 2003.
