Press release

19th June 2009 - for immediate use

Olympic bid unites rugby world

Rugby is in the running for Olympic re-inclusion and it goes without saying that this is a hugely important time for the future of the sport, with the IRB having recently presented rugby’s case to the International Olympic Committee. Rugby has Olympic heritage, having featured four times in the Games, with the USA the current Olympic champions crowned in 1924 and unbeaten for 85 years.

There are seven hot contenders for Olympic inclusion with golf, baseball, karate, rugby sevens, softball, squash and roller sports competing for the opportunity to reach new audiences and raise their sport's profile. Successful re-inclusion holds massive growth potential for rugby in particular, which could become a truly global sport. There are two available slots in the Olympic program, the shortlist of seven sports will be cut down by the IOC's executive board at a meeting on August 13 in Berlin.

Trust the global rugby family to not just sit back and wait for the IOC to make a decision. They much prefer doing things the rugby way: Teaming up, scrumming down and getting behind their sport to improve its chances. This is where olympic-rugby.org comes in – the online petition to get rugby to the Games and make it 'score' under the Olympic posts.

It is a grass-roots petition with the aim to ‘engage’ and collect millions of signatures to fuel rugby's Olympic cause. It gives everyone who loves rugby the chance to have their say and put their weight behind the Olympic bid. The website has been online for only four weeks and has already collected over 30 000 signatures from more than 150 countries, proving that there are rugby lovers in every corner of the globe from as far afield as Mongolia or Venezuela.

"Seeing Sevens at the Olympics would be the ultimate and this global stage is really where our game belongs," said former Springbok captain Bob Skinstad.

The 2007 World Cup winner added: "Already there have been thousands of new signatures since I signed, it's great to see this petition tick over and the rugby world getting right behind it!"

There has also been amazing support from national Sevens teams and players around the world; with Argentina, Brazil women's, England, New Zealand, Scotland, Spain, USA and Wales (the Sevens World Cup champions) and many others supporting the initiative. The newly-crowned IRB Sevens World Series champions South Africa have also come on board.

While there may be some rugby purists who aren’t outspoken fans of Sevens Rugby, there is no doubt that it is the perfect format for the Games and rugby as a whole would benefit hugely from its inclusion. Sevens is exciting, fast, high scoring and easy to understand, guaranteed to fill a stadium with passionate fans who will celebrate their Olympic champions after only three action-packed days.

Sevens Rugby has grown dramatically and one of the great draw cards for inclusion in the 2016 Games is, that it is very successfully played by women. One of the very best players is Cheryl Soon, who lead the Australian Sevens team to World Championship glory in Dubai earlier this year.

The Wallaroo 7s captain said for her personally "Competing in the Olympics is the pinnacle. Winning an Olympic medal would be a dream come true!"

The gold medallist was part of IRB’s panel that presented rugby’s case to the IOC in Switzerland. While she is confident the presentation went well, she also agrees that raising awareness and creating plenty of noise for Rugby Sevens and the sport’s Olympic bid will add lots of weight to the cause, which is why she backs olympic-rugby.org.

Crouch, touch, pause... engage. Get involved, the rugby way.

Ends.

At the time this press release is being sent the petition has been online for 29 days, attracting 31787 signatures from 170 countries
Check on http://www.olympic-rugby.org for current figures.
Please don't hesitate to contact us with any olympic-rugby.org related media enquiries - please email Bodo Sieber at engage@olympic-rugby.org