Softball, Baseball "A Ways Apart"
"We are a ways apart," International Softball Federation president Don Porter tells Around the Rings about a possible partnership with baseball for Olympic reinstatement in 2020.
Porter and baseball counterpart Riccardo Fraccari spoke informally during ongoing meetings of the Association of National Olympic Committees in Moscow but are no closer to ironing out differences in their draft Memorandum of Understanding, according to the ISF chief.
Requirements for both federations are laid out in the MoU, which include doping and ensuring that some of the world's top baseball and softball players are made available for the Olympics, an issue of major importance for the IOC.
Porter and Fraccari are scheduled to present the joint bid proposal to IOC sport director Christophe Dubi and Olympic Games executive director GilbertFelli next week in Lausanne.
The question is whether the IOC will sanction a joint bid, Porter tells ATR.
In 2005, the IOC voted to kick baseball and softball off the program. The two sports failed with separate bids to regain their Olympic berths for Rio 2016 when golf and rugby were voted on as new sports.
Both are now vying with karate, roller sports, sports climbing,squash, wakeboard and wushu to secure the one place available on the 2020 Olympic program. The IOC will vote at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires.
Women’s Ice Hockey Worlds
The semifinals are set after a week of play at the women’s ice hockey world championships in Burlington, Vermont.
Reigning champion USA faces Switzerland later Friday at Gutterson Fieldhouse with Finland versus Olympic gold medalist Canada to follow.
Switzerland is the only one of the four never to reach the podium while the other three own 36 of the 39 medals awarded at 13 world championships to date.
Both medal games are scheduled for Saturday.
Triathlon Opens Showcase Series
The newly renamed World Triathlon Series kicks off Saturday in Sydney with roughly the same course on which the sport made its Olympic debut in 2000.
The flagship series then heads to San Diego, USA; Madrid, Spain; Kitzbuehel, Austria and Hamburg, Germany and Stockholm, Sweden over the summer months.
Yokohama, Japan and Auckland, New Zealand round out the schedule with the International Triathlon Union’s 25th Congress to be staged immediately following the Grand Final on Oct. 20 and 21.
Coe, Chernyshenko Headline ATR Newsmaker Breakfast
"Breakfast with Seb and Dima" – next Monday's Around the Rings Newsmaker Breakfast – is set for the Fusion Plaza restaurant, 2nd level (street mall) of the World Trade Center Moscow.
Sebastian Coe, chairman of London 2012, and Dmitry Chernyshenko, president and CEO of Sochi 2014, will join Ed Hula, editor of ATR, on the sidelines of the Association of National Olympic Committees General Assembly.
The event is sponsored by ISM Ltd., the IOC's worldwide exclusive interactive entertainment software licensee, and The Concerto Group, London's premier events planning organization.
Space is strictly limited. Click here for more information, and RSVP to Harriet Drinkwater of The Concerto Group.
Written by Matthew Grayson with reporting in Moscow by Mark Bisson
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
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