Hockey has been retained on the programme for the 2012 London Olympic Games after a vote by International Olympic Committee members in Singapore today. 

The 117th IOC Session voted to include 26 of the 28 current Olympic sports on the programme, with baseball and softball excluded for 2012. These two sports will remain an Olympic Sport however and are eligible for inclusion in the programme of the 2016 Games. 

These two sports failed to win a majority of votes by IOC members and have become the first sports to be dropped from the Olympic Programme since polo in 1936. 

While hockey was confident of retaining its position on the Olympic Programme after the release of the IOC Programme Commission report, today’s vote comes on top of a number of positive announcements made by FIH in the past few months. 

These announcements include the signing of two major television broadcast deals and the launch of a new four-weekly television magazine programme, BDO WorldHockey Monthly.

Today’s decision means that hockey will participate for the 19th consecutive Olympic Games in 2012 and 21st overall. Hockey was also played on the two previous occasions that London has hosted the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948, with Great Britain and India respectively claiming the gold medals. 

The IOC Executive Board met later in the day and elected to have squash and karate put before the entire Session for a vote on whether they should be added to the list of Olympic sports.

However both sports both failed to get the two-thirds majority of votes needed for their entry into the Olympic Games, meaning the 2012 Games in London will have 26 sports, two less than the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.