Final Push to Get Rugby into the Olympics – VOTE NOW!

On Friday, October 9, the IOC will vote on whether to include Rugby Sevens in the 2016 Olympic Games programme.

UPDATE: The IRB have just announced that we can watch the decision LIVE, more details here.

As part of its final push, the IRB is urging the global rugby family to get behind the campaign and register its support in a poll running on online Olympic publication http://insidethegames.biz. The poll can be found on the right hand side of the home page.

The results of the poll will be published on Thursday in the lead up to the IOC vote and ahead of the IRB’s final presentation to the 106 IOC members at its Session in Copenhagen. Please register your vote today and forward this email to fellow members of the Rugby family, friends and colleagues.

Together we can make the Olympic dream a reality!

Poll Results Boost Olympic Campaign

Rugby Sevens’ campaign for Olympic Games inclusion has received a boost on the eve of the IOC vote after followers of the specialist Olympic website www.insidethegames.biz voted unanimously in favour of Sevens at the Olympic Games.

Subscribers were asked to choose which sport they wished to see included in the 2016 Olympic Games from the original IOC shortlist of seven sports, with Rugby Sevens topping the poll with almost 87 per cent of votes cast.

Poll results:

Rugby 25,368 (86.6 per cent)
Softball 1,815 (6.2)
Squash 1,444 (4.9)
Golf 210 (0.7)
Baseball 203 (0.7)
Karate 169 (0.6)
Roller sports 96 (0.3)

Total votes cast: 29,305

IRB Secretary General Mike Miller said: “It is always nice to win. Clearly the subscribers to Inside the Games have shown the wide range of support that Rugby Sevens has for inclusion into the Olympic Games. We are very proud of the campaign that we have run and we have received tremendous feedback since arriving here in Copenhagen for the IOC meetings. However, we all know that the vote that counts is on Friday and we hope that the IOC members will back inclusion into the Olympic sports programme.”

Rugby Sevens’ presentation to the IOC Session tomorrow is being streamed live via the International Olympic Committee website at www.olympic.org from 1055 CET.