David Leggat: Olympic dilemma - what sports to add?

You be the judge. Write these sports down: golf, karate, squash, rugby sevens, softball, roller-skating and baseball.

For the 2016 Olympic Games, two of those seven will be added to an already bulging schedule. Which would you pick?

That's what is facing members of the International Olympic Committee, who will make their decision at their congress in Copenhagen in October.

There are 26 events on the card for London in 2012, which you might have thought was sufficient. Not so, according to the IOC.

The quiet word is that golf and rugby sevens have the inside running. IOC president Jacques Rogge was a flanker for Belgium and is apparently a big fan. He doesn't have a vote, but he does have some sway.

But the question that should be asked is why golf? It has no place there for same reasons tennis, introduced in 1992, should be rubbed off the Olympic programme.

Those seven sports made presentations to the IOC this month. They will be whittled down to two by an executive board meeting in Berlin next month for rubber stamping in Copenhagen.

Golf has no place at the Olympics because if you apply the principle that winning a gold medal should be the pinnacle of sporting achievement, ask Tiger Woods where he'd rate an Olympic gold alongside another green jacket.

Ask Rafael Nadal where his Olympic gold medal of last year rates alongside his six Grand Slam crowns and, if he's really honest, he'll place it one shelf down.

There's nothing wrong with tennis, but plenty wrong about having it at the Olympics for the same reason as golf, whose appeal to the IOC in large part lies with them fancying the world's biggest names being at their party.

True story. At the Athens Games five years ago, two New Zealand athletes were sitting having breakfast in the food hall.

A chap approached, food tray in hands and passed the time of day with them. Where were they from, what events were they in, how did they like Athens. Usual chat.

It wasn't until he wished them well and moved away that they noticed the name on the accreditation card swinging in front of his chest: Roger Federer. Which goes to show two things: Federer, unlike the American Dream Team - Johnson, Bird, Jordan, Pippen, Barclay and co - who parked up in a hotel at Barcelona in 1992 rather than mix with the hoi polloi in the village, has an everyman touch about him; and some New Zealand athletes are not super knowledgeable on the wider world of sport.

"It's a great shame that golf isn't an Olympic sport," said Colin Montgomerie, who was part of the sport's delegation to the IOC.

Well, he would say that, and the same could doubtless be heard by any number of top performers about their (non) Olympic sport.

Now hear Mike Miller, the International Rugby Board's secretary-general, and Games bid leader. The IRB plan for men's and women's events of 12 teams each.

"We know that when people go and see it they fall in love with it," he said of sevens. Again, you could hear that from a hundred spruikers of their sport.

Rugby can argue its sphere of activity is widening and could produce a winner from more countries than will ever win the 15-man World Cup.

Karate's case is weakened by the fact the Games already have taekwondo and judo. Does it really need a third martial art?

Baseball and softball were in Beijing last year, but removed for London. Those sports' impact has not been widespread, particularly in Europe.

Squash, which has worked to make the game more visually friendly, is played everywhere. It has a decent case.

The likelihood is that the IOC will opt for one team sport and one individual.

So on that basis, squash and sevens it should be. Best not tee it up just yet, though.