Cuba Laments IOC “No” to Baseball
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES, August 14 – Cuban sports authorities and fans regretted the news on Thursday that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had voted not to return baseball to the 2016 Olympic Games after it had already been axed from the 2012 London Games.
Other sports rejected from consideration as IOC disciplines were softball, squash, and karate and roller sports. Golf and rugby are still under consideration.
The site for the 2016 Olympics is being contested by Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Chicago and Tokyo. The vote is set to take place in early October.
In expressing the island’s rejection of the IOC decision, Cuban Olympic Committee president Jose Ramon Fernandez noted that baseball is “a sport at the reach of the masses” while noting that “golf is an elite sport for upper classes.”
Cuba has been among the countries leading the appeal to reinstate baseball, which was in the 2008 Olympics with South Korea taking the gold medal in a tough 3-2 win over Cuba. “Baseball should never have been removed” from the Olympics, but its supporters were unable to obtain the votes for its return.
This decision is such a shame. Baseball is not a sport I would have thought to be banned, but despite the efforrts of other countries…
Jake I think may have a point maybe a reason for it is that a lot of European countries would not have a chance of winning. Furthermore the baseball games from the olympics were not shown at all where I live in the U.K.
I would dearly love to see cuba do well, especially in baseball, and win gold medals in the olympics, like they do in boxing.
Yet baseball is not a world sport, and as such suffers in the eyes of the IOC.
The IOC is controlled by European members. They do not want sports that they have no chance of winning in the Olympics