Baseball and softball are cut from London Games

Olympic Games
London will stage a reduced Olympic Games in 2012 after baseball and softball were wiped from the programme in a controversial vote yesterday.

London's showpiece will now feature 26 sports rather than 28 after International Olympic Committee (IOC) members rejected proposals to replace the axed sports with two from rugby sevens, golf, squash, karate and roller sports.

Baseball and softball failed to win a majority of votes in a ballot of members at the IOC session at the Raffles complex in Singapore and became the first sports to be cut from the Games since polo in 1936.

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 programme.

The last Olympics to be staged with just 26 sports was Atlanta in 1996. The minimum number of sports required for an Olympic Games is 15, the maximum 28.

"Today was a decision to put quality over quantity," IOC communications director Giselle Davies said.

Although London will have two fewer sports than Beijing in 2008, it is expected the IOC will tweak the programme and boost numbers among the events so the Games will be no smaller than Beijing's.

"We're delighted to deliver a Games with 26 sports. We're happy with the decision," London 2012 communications director Mike Lee said. "There will be some savings through not having temporary venues in Regents Park but it is not a major consideration."

In 2002 the IOC capped the number of sports at an Olympic Games at 28, the number of events at 301 and the number of athletes at 10,500. At that same session in Mexico City, IOC President Jacques Rogge proposed baseball, softball and modern pentathlon be dropped, and golf and rugby union added. However, IOC members resisted and no vote was taken.

"This is payback for Mexico City," said a shocked softball federation chief Don Porter. "They wanted us out in 2002. It has taken them three years but they have got us."

Baseball federation president Aldo Notari said: "The problem with baseball is the best players are not going to the Games . . . It is still necessary to work for 2016."

The programme for 2016 will be voted on after the 2008 Beijing Games.