Rogge outlines procedures for softball return

LONDON (AP) – IOC President Jacques Rogge outlined the procedures yesterday for any moves to reinstate softball for the 2012 Olympics. International Softball Federation President Don Porter met with Rogge in Lausanne, Switzerland, to push for a reconsideration of the decision to drop the sport after the 2008 Beijing Games. The International Olympic Committee voted in July to cut softball and baseball after the 2008 Beijing Games, the first sports removed from the program since polo in 1936. Porter said Rogge told him the «door is open» for another vote, but only if the IOC members request it at their session in February on the eve of the Winter Games in Turin, Italy. «It was all very positive, a very good meeting,» Porter said in a phone interview. «He outlined eventually what the process would be as far as reconsideration.» Under IOC rules, at least one-third of the 115 members would need to submit a motion to consider a new vote. If the motion passed, softball would require a majority in favor to win reinstatement. Softball, a women’s sport which has been on the program since the 1996 Atlanta Games, came within one vote of keeping its place during the July vote in Singapore. It received 52 votes in favor and 52 against, with one abstention. «We’re going to have to go out and lobby on behalf of our sport to get the support,» Porter said.