Golf, rugby in Olympics
COPENHAGEN (AP) — Tiger Woods will get a chance to win golf gold, and rugby teams can start rehearsing their Olympic hakas after both sports won inclusion Friday in the 2016 Games.
After more than a century on the sidelines, golf will return to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Rugby, last played in 1924, is coming back as well.
Both were reinstated for the 2016 and 2020 games after a vote by the International Olympic Committee.
Each sport received majority support in separate votes after leading athletes and officials from both camps gave presentations, including a taped video message from Woods and other top pros. Woods has indicated he would play in the Olympics if golf were accepted for 2016.
“There are millions of young golfers worldwide who would be proud to represent their country,”Woods said from the Presidents Cup. “I would be an honor for anyone who plays this game to become an Olympian.”
Golf was approved 63-27 with two abstentions. Rugby was voted in 81-8 with one abstention.
The vote brings the number of summer Olympic sports back to 28.
There have been two openings on the program since baseball and softball were dropped in 2005 for the 2012 London Games.
They are the first new sports added since triathlon and taekwondo joined the program for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
After the announcement, the rugby group jumped from their seats in the back of the room, cheering and hugging each other. The golf representatives were more reserved, applauding and shaking hands.
“We were ecstatic and wanted to jump on the table, but we sort of restrained ourselves,”former New Zealand rugby great Jonah Lomu told The Associated Press. “I was just fantastic for the game.”
Lomu stopped short of breaking into the haka, the intimidating pre-game traditional Maori war dance performed by the New Zealand All Blacks.
Rugby will organize a four-day seven-a-side tournament – instead of the more traditional 15-a-side game – for 12 men’s and women’s teams. Golf will stage a 72-hole stroke-play tournament for men and women, with 60 players in each field.
The venue and schedule for both sports in Rio de Janeiro has yet to be decided. The golf tournament will not necessarily be played between a Thursday and Sunday, bid leader Ty Votaw said.
“It might be Wednesday to Saturday,” Votaw said. “Or it might be that the women’s competition is first, and the men’s is second. All of those things need to be worked out over the next seven years.”
British bookmaker William Hill immediately named Woods the favorite in Rio, giving 6-1 odds that the American will win the gold medal.




