After my previous downer posting, I thought that I should comment on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision to add golf(no real surpise) and rugby 7’s to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games that will be held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. The final yes vote was a very pleasant surprise to me-Interestingly enough, rugby actually had more yes votes than golf.

For people who are curious about my feelings about the place where the 2016 Olympics will be held, on the one hand, I was a bit disappointed in that Chicago did not even make it out of the first round of voting. President Obama’s political home base is a 6 and a half hour drive from Minneapolis-it would have been really cool having the games in my wife’s home town. The other part of me feels like South America was way overdue to host an Olympic Games. South America has not hosted a really major sporting event since the very controversial 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina-and has never hosted an Olympic Games.(Mexico, believe it or not, is in North America) President Obama tried to use his international star power(Witness his recent Nobel Peace Prize…can somebody please tell me WHAT he did exactly to earn such an award?) to sway and schmooze IOC  delegates-to no avail. I think in the end, It was a brave decision to bring the Olympics to South America.

I think the only downer about venue, is that it is going to be a really hot place in which the rugby players will running, rucking and mauling.

The one thing that the bid for rugby’s inclusion re-instatement into the Olympic games  had going for it, is that some traditional  Olympic powers: the USA, China, Russia, Germany, Japan, South Korea are minor players in the game of rugby worldwide(Although Japan is making big strides and getting the 2019 Rugby World Cup will continue to grow the game there). Teams like Samoa and Fiji may actually have their flags flown on an Olympic podium…fans outside of the rugby community may actually get to see these flags for the first time ever. A lot of teams who have succes in the rugby world are teams that don’t always rack up a lot of medals in the Olympics.

The other thing that doing a 7’s tournament has going for it is the format:

It will be a four-day tournament involving 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams. Each country will bring 12 players to the games.

Of note, the traditional 15-a-side game of rugby was played at the Olympics in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924.

Traditional rugby fans may be shocked to find out that The United States won the last rugby gold medal at the 1924 Paris Games, beating France 17-3 in a contentious final that included fighting in the stands and police protection for the Americans as they left the field.

The inclusion of rugby in the Olympics will only continue to help the growth and develpment of the sport in the US. It’s a pretty safe bet that the suits with the IRB were doing their version of a happy dance, just like the Rio citizens were doing with their bit of good news.