SportsPro Poll Result - 2020 Olympic Programme

Softball teams from Japan, USA and Australia pose together after spelling out 2016 with balls on the field after the gold medal softball game at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

With the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently announcing the shortlist of sports vying for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics programme, the last closely fought SportsPro poll asked our readers, ‘Which one of the eight contenders will be added to the programme for the 32nd Olympiad?’

Despite the IOC’s decision to eliminate softball from the programme until at least 2016, with its final appearance coming at the 2008 Games in Beijing, the result of our latest poll suggests the committee’s 2005 ruling may not yet spell the absolute end for the sport’s Olympic status. If softball receives a similar level of support from the voting IOC members in Buenos Aires in 2013 as it has from our readers, it is likely the sport could once again be staged at the Games in nine years time. Nearly half of the total 21,978 votes went to softball – 45.78 per cent – a clear indication of the sport’s popularity.

In second place, the ever-growing watersport of wakeboarding received 30.09 per cent of the vote, a result which reflects the increased support the sport has received over recent years. Without the likes of waterskiing and kitesurfing in the Olympic programme, if selected, wakeboarding would become the only sport of its kind at the Olympics in 2020.

Finishing third and fourth in the poll are two of the more established sports in the shortlist in terms of professional history, namely baseball and squash, with 16.16 and 6.87 per cent of the vote respectively. Both sports have widespread participation and a solid worldwide fan base on their side, however, despite making the shortlist, with baseball’s recent exclusion and squash narrowly missing out in its last two bids, the IOC’s members may feel it has considered both cases exhaustively in recent years and opt for an alternative.

The sports that made up the bottom four in our poll shared barely one per cent (241) of the votes between them. The disappointing statistic suggests that the sports of roller sports, sport climbing, karate and wushu all have some way to go if they are to gather enough support to convince the IOC they merit Olympic inclusion.

Continuing the Olympic theme, the current poll asks, at present, which bidding city looks most likely to win the 2020 Olympic Games? To exercise your vote, click here and navigate to the SportsPro Poll.