World Lacrosse Readies IOC Application - Federations

(ATR) The governing body for lacrosse welcomed its 55th member country last week and is putting the finishing touches on its application for IOC recognition.

"As much as we got a whole bunch of passionate people in our federation, I don’t think anybody would have dreamed 20 years ago where we’d be today," said Federation of International Lacrosse president Stan Cockerton before the FIL Under-19 Men’s Lacrosse World Championships in Coquitlam, near Vancouver.

Haiti became the latest member nation. Only 20 years ago, Cockerton remarked, there were four members. FIL estimates more than a million players are in organized lacrosse around the world. While development of the game has been FIL’s number one priority, the last 13 years have also involved a campaign for IOC acceptance.

"We’ve hit all the criteria we have to, we’re now members of all the organizations we have to be, and this August we’ll be putting in our official application in to the IOC to become an Olympic member," Cockerton said.

"We’re very hopeful by the end of the year that we’ll get the call that our great sport of lacrosse is recognized by the IOC. Then, once that happens, we’ve already got an Olympic vision committee in place to raise the $3 million to $4 million that we think it’s going to take to get that last push to be competing in the Olympics, to get lacrosse back in the Olympics, with all the great sports of the world."

Lacrosse was among the sports at St. Louis 1904 and London 1908, with Canada winning both. It was a demonstration sport in Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932 and London 1948.

Cricket Boss Sees Golf as a Cautionary Tale for Olympic Inclusion

The chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC) believes his sport's chances of getting into the Olympics has been hurt by the wave of high-profile male golfers who have chosen to skip Rio 2016.

Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy are the top four golfers in the world and all of them have withdrawn from Rio. Three other top 20 players have joined them, leaving a weakened field for golf's return to the Olympics after a 112-year absence.

ICC chief executive Dave Richardson, quoted by Reuters, told British media recently"I think this experience with golf might have made it even harder for us to get in, because we will have to convince them our top teams and players will be there.

"Will cricketers regard it as the pinnacle, or would they prefer a World Twenty20, a World Cup, an Ashes series? And if it's not the pinnacle, should we be in the Olympics in the first place?"

Richardson says Twenty20, the shortest form of cricket, is being considered for the Olympics. Recently, the president of the Italian cricket board was widely reported as saying he had received assurances from the organizing committee for the Rome 2024 bid that the sport would be included should the Italian capital win hosting rights.

Gymnastics Judges Removed from Rio

Fourteen gymnastics judges are no longer allowed to officiate the Rio 2016 Summer Games that begin in a little more than two weeks.

The judges are being removed for poor performances at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, the 2015 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany and the test events in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the Games.

Although only eight of the judges were reprimanded by the FIG Disciplinary Commission, each of the judges that had disciplinary proceedings brought against them will not be allowed to participate in Rio.

The commission issued warnings to five judges, suspended two for a period of three months and issued a four month suspension to one judge. Two of the suspensions came from judges at the artistic gymnastics test event in Rio.

"Following the 2015 World Championships and the Rio Test Events, both qualifiers for Gymnastics at the 2016 Olympic Games, the FIG conducted a thorough analysis of the scores awarded by sworn judges in order to ensure that the athletes' results were compatible with the current code of points," the FIG said in a statement.

"This analysis once again confirmed the excellent work of the vast majority of the judges on the road to Rio."

Written by Bob Mackin, Gerard Farek and Kevin Nutley.

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