When the Olympic games started in 1896 there were nine sports of competition. Now, the Games have split into summer and winter sessions, with twenty-six different sports in the former and seven in the latter. Within these sports, there are many disciplines and these are broken up further into events. There are more than three hundred events in the summer games and eighty-six in the winter. If you're watching the Olympics from your home in Cabbagetown Toronto or here in Vancouver you might be wondering how the International Olympics Committee chooses which sports are going to be included in the Games and which are still not eligible. Here is a brief outline of the current guidelines.

The Olympic Programme Commission was created in 2004 as a means for evaluating sports to test them for inclusion in the games. Before all sports were simply added or eliminated by a voting committee without any sort of criteria being laid out before hand. This means that while there may have been many professionals to class action lawyers participating in that sport throughout the world there was no way to tell if it was widespread enough to qualify for the Olympics. Now there are seven different categories that need to be considered for each sport and discipline. These include the tradition and history of the event, popularity, universality, the health of the athletes participating, the sport's image, the development of a global federation, and the costs associated with the sport.

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When this system was first introduced it was found that five additional sports were eligible for inclusion in the Summer Olympics. These were golf, squash, rugby, roller sports, and karate. Two of these made it as finalists at the General Session in 2005, karate and squash, but neither were able to receive two thirds support from the committee. Later, golf and rugby were put up for inclusion and both will be a part of the 2016 Summer Games. This is great news for those that watch one of these events from their home at 761 Bay or from the local sports bar on weekends.

There have also been several sports that have been eliminated from the games throughout the years. You may have read in a magazine while at the root canal Mississauga office that when the Summer Olympics returns in 2012 in London, England there will no longer be softball or baseball. Throughout the years there have been fourteen sports eliminated from the games. This ranges from those that just existed in the early years to things like lacrosse and polo. Golf was actually a part of the 1900 and 1904 Olympics and a different form of rugby was included until 1920.

There were more than ten thousand athletes present at the last Olympic games, ranging from people who drive a Toronto airport taxi during the day to those that tour the world for their sport. All are able to compete together in the games that bring the world together.