Berlin - A possible inclusion of women's boxing for the 2012 London Olympics and the return of golf after 112 years in 2016 are top of the agenda at executive board
(EB) meetings of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday.

Tiger Woods and company hope to be one of two sports picked by the EB, with rugby sevens tipped to be the other one. The other candidates baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby, and squash are expected to miss out.

The Olympians are also scheduled to meet with the council of the ruling athletics body IAAF, a traditional gathering of the top officials from the two bodies on the eve of world championships.

The athletics worlds kick off Saturday in the Olympic Stadium and are the biggest sports event of the year, with Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt leading 2,101 listed athletes from 202 countries.

While athletics is the number one sport at summer Olympics, the golfers were only at the Olympics twice, in 1900 and 1904.

Tiger Woods and company are not in Berlin as the PGA Championships get underway the same day, but they hope for the nod from the IOC. Woods indicated in Chaska, Minnesota, ahead of the Thursday's tee-off that he would play at the Olympics.

"If I'm not retired by then, yes," said Woods, who will be 40 in 2016.

"Golf is a truly global sport and it should have been in the Olympics a while ago. If it does get in, I think it would be great for golf and especially for some of the smaller countries that are now emerging in golf."

IOC president Jacques Rogge has suggested in the past that he would like to see golf at the Games, and rugby appears set to make its Olympic debut in the sevens version.

The executive board decision is not the final ruling on the issue, as the IOC Session in October in Copenhagen has the final saying. The IOC will also elect the 2016 host city from Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo at that meeting.

Women's boxers, meanwhile, hope to join their male counterparts at the Olympics in London.

The IOC was hesitant in the past but the event is spreading with now more than 120 member federations. The boxing federation AIBA is reportedly proposing a revised programme with 10 men's and three women's events.

"Considering the level of women's boxing today and the amount it has improved in recent years, we are all hoping that the IOC will allow us to compete on the ultimate sporting stage," said US boxer Tiffanie Hearn at the Sportaccord meeting in Denver in spring.

Tennis is aiming for the inclusion of a mixed competition and changes have also been proposed in swimming, cycling, modern pentathlon and other sports to the executive board. (dpa)