Olympic Panel Says 3 Sports May Be Dropped

Modern pentathlon, synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics could be on an Olympic list of sports to be dropped from the Games, if suggestions by an International Olympic Committee panel are followed.

The panel, assigned to study ways to limit the growth of the Games, will ask the IOC next month to set strict guidelines for what sports are in the Games.

These guidelines include drastically raising admission standards, limiting the number of athletes or rounds in individual events and making sports that want to add events drop outdated ones, according to Vitaly Smirnov, IOC member from the Soviet Union.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC president, said earlier this month that there were no plans to drop boxing, weightlifting or soccer, three sports that have provided, in order, medical, ethical and political problems for the IOC in recent years.

At the same time, he mentioned golf, softball and triathlon as sports that could be added.