IOC mulls new Olympic events

Lausanne - Three years out from the Rio Games, 3-on-3 basketball and BMX freestyle are competing in an alternative Olympic contest - trying to win selection to the programme.

The International Olympic Committee is now assessing possible extra events, teams and athletes for Brazil after the successful London Games, with one of the deepest wish-lists sent in by swimming's governing body.

IOC sports director Christophe Dubi told The Associated Press on Monday that the Olympics sports federations have been "extremely creative" with their requests.

"All of them believe that adding something will be fantastic for their sport," Dubi said. "We look at it from the other angle: will that bring, or not, an added value to the Olympic Games?"

The IOC executive board will decide on August 9 in Moscow which events to add after studying reports from Dubi's department. Currently, the Rio Games programme is scheduled to award 306 gold medals across 28 sports with a maximum of 10 700 athletes.

Dubi said the IOC wants to make the same impact with new additions as they made in London, which awarded 302 medals in 26 sports. Golf and seven-a-side rugby join in Rio.

"Women's boxing was incredibly successful, and in mixed doubles of tennis, the quality of the field was extraordinary," the Swiss official said.

The IOC has options to add "radically new events" in Rio, Dubi said, with some designed for youth audiences.

Three-a-side half-court basketball successfully debuted at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore, and the International Cycling Union proposes adding street-style BMX and a mountain bike eliminator, which is a sprint race involving four riders.

"You have new properties that are not mainstream yet outside of the Olympics, but where the Olympics could give a boost," Dubi said.

Traditional sports also are competing and swimming body FINA suggested 50m medal events in backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly for men and women, plus 800 freestyle for men and 1 500 free for women.

"Is it totally different? No, but it's important as well," Dubi said, highlighting swimming's "super high" ratings. "Every time you put it on TV there is consumption."

FINA also seeks more entrants in women's water polo (12 teams instead of eight), open-water swimming (30, up from 25), diving and synchronised swimming team event.

With the iconic Copacabana sands hosting beach volleyball, the FIVB governing body proposes 32 teams in each of the men's and women's events, up from 24 in London.

"We think it will be a signature event in Rio," FIVB spokesperson Richard Baker told AP.

Still, beach football in Brazil is not on the agenda after FIFA "never discussed" its potential with Dubi.

The 10 700-athlete quota makes new team events difficult for host cities to accommodate, and not all sports have asked the IOC for more.

Dubi spoke on the sidelines of an Olympic forum for the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), which seeks only to modify how it allocates its 200-rider quota between events.

FEI secretary general Ingmar de Vos said the body could in future try to add endurance racing as a fourth discipline. For now, it hopes to switch 10 entries from eventing to dressage to help bring consistency with jumping in having four-rider national teams.

Gender equity is an IOC aim and, after mixed-team formats impressed the IOC in Singapore, archery and triathlon hope to add them in Rio.

As Dubi's team attends events and prepare reports until July, he also awaits reports from wrestling body FILA, which has an emergency congress in Moscow next month. Wrestling's gender issues played a part in the IOC board's recommendation to drop both Greco-Roman and freestyle disciplines from the 2020 programme.

"Yes, that was always a controversy that they didn't have women for Greco," acknowledged Dubi, with seven men's events and none for women in London. "I will be interested to see what they will propose for Rio."