The IOC today announced that women's boxing is to be included in the London 2012 Olympic programme, while golf and rugby sevens will be recommended for inclusion in the Olympics from 2016. Bids from baseball, softball, squash, karate and roller sports and three other sports were rejected. 

Of more importance to swimming: SwimNews understands that there will be no 1,500m for women nor 800m for men nor any 50m strokes to be included in a 2012 programme that will remain the same for a fifth Games in succession.

At a meeting in Berlin today, the IOC Olympic Programme Commission analysed all of the requests of sports federations, including FINA, "based on established criteria" and has now submitted its finding to the Executive Board of the IOC. It is understood that the Commission voted to see no change to swimming in 2012.

Rumour has it that the 50m races may find favour for 2016. While some in swimming would like to see more events added, the sport ought to be still for a moment and consider what it looks like from the outside. Here's a taste of a view I've heard many times from observers, reporters and editors around the world, as told by the Seattle Times.

The changes it did approve, not pertaining to swimming, are contained in the following IOC press release:

IOC approves new events for 2012 London Olympic Games 

The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today approved several new events for the 2012 London Olympic Games. All of the new events had been requested by the relevant International Federations as part of the IOC’s systematic review of the sports programme. The changes reflect the IOC’s desire to continually refresh the Olympic programme and its commitment to increase participation by women.

The changes approved by the Executive Board include the following:

Women’s Boxing

The EB agreed to the introduction of three women’s events. The current 11 men’s boxing events will be replaced by 10 men’s and three women’s events, representing an additional two boxing events on the programme. The total number of boxers remains unchanged. The decision was a recognition that women’s boxing has made substantial progress in universality and technical quality of the athletes since the EB last considered the discipline in 2005.

Canoe Sprint

The EB agreed to the request made by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) for the replacement of men’s C2 500m with women’s K1 200m. The EB also agreed to replace the remaining three men’s 500m sprint events with 200m sprint events.

Modern Pentathlon

The EB agreed to the implementation of a new combined run-shoot format.

Handball

The removal of placement matches in the handball tournament was agreed.

Wrestling, Swimming, Cycling

The three Federations (FILA, FINA, and UCI respectively) submitted requests for new events. The EB informed them that this could happen, especially if the new events increase the participation of women at the Games and on condition that they replace events already on the programme. Additionally, current events can be replaced with new ones only if the total number of athletes is maintained.

Tennis – Mixed Doubles

Furthermore, the EB agreed to consider the inclusion of a mixed doubles event pending guarantees from the International Tennis Federation that the top players in the singles rankings would be able to participate.

The EB will make a decision on the issue at its December meeting in Lausanne.