The chance for a sport to join the Olympic Games comes around so infrequently, it pays not to miss the boat.

The most recent welcomed to the top table were taekwondo and triathlon at the Sydney Games in 2000 and it will not be until 2016 when another two get the kind of global exposure that transforms followings and fortunes.

The four-year campaign for inclusion is almost over and, on Monday, the seven candidates vying for up to two slots on the Olympic programme have a final chance to convince the IOC of their suitability.

The bidding sports are baseball, golf, karate, rugby sevens, softball, squash and roller sports. This shortlist will be whittled down to two by the IOC's executive board at a meeting on August 13 on the eve of the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, hopes the recommendations will be rubber-stamped at the annual congress in Copenhagen in October. The move is designed to avoid a repeat of the fiasco in Singapore in 2005 when no sport was voted in despite two places being made available by the exclusion of baseball and softball after the Beijing Games.

Given the potential rewards of inclusion, the lobbying circus has travelled from New Zealand to Colorado in recent months in an attempt to win the majority vote.

Olympic insiders suggest golf and rugby sevens are the front-runners because the IOC aims to include one individual sport and one team sport that is open to both sexes.

Rogge, a former Olympic sailor, is keen to create a gender-neutral Games and has already said that women's boxing should be included in London 2012. While he has confessed to a greater love for rugby, having played open-side flanker for Belgium, he emphasised that he had no vote.

Fifteen-a-side rugby union was dropped in 1924, but sevens has improved its chances since IOC board members were exposed to the success of its World Cup in Dubai in March. To prove its regard for the Olympics as its pinnacle, the International Rugby Board (IRB) has promised to drop the World Cup if it gains an Olympic spot. “Inclusion is a chance to grow the game further around the world and give little nations such as Fiji and Samoa the chance for a gold medal,” Bernard Lapasset, the IRB chairman, said.

Golf has pledged to field the world's best male and female players in 60-player strokeplay tournaments in each week of the Games, while using the Olympics to dispel its “country club image”. The stars and the sponsors that golf would bring to the Games will be hard to reject.

Yet it is by no means a done deal. Squash still presents a good case for inclusion as it tries to shake its yuppie image immortalised by Wall Street, Oliver Stone's 1987 film about corporate excess.

Glass showcubes, dropped into locations as diverse as Grand Central Station in New York and the Pyramids in Giza, have improved its televisual appeal, while high-definition cameras will make it even easier to watch.

Peter Nicol, the former Great Britain No1, would swap his sole World Open title for an Olympic gold medal. “There is just something so symbolic about being an Olympian,” he said. However, it is unlikely that Tiger Woods, who is backing golf's bid, would surrender his first Masters green jacket for a medal of any sort.

Squash argues that it has much more to gain. Jahangir Khan, the Pakistani considered the greatest to play the game, told The Times: “I won all the titles but I never won an Olympic gold medal and it was my dream. The players now have that same dream. The standard, the coverage, the sponsorship - everything would change.”

During the Copenhagen session, the IOC will also select the 2016 host city from the shortlist of Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

Squash is the bookies’ choice, with baseball, karate and softball not far behind

Golf
Having featured twice in the Games, in 1900 and 1904, it has Olympic heritage and is global. A 72-hole strokeplay tournament would bring big stars such as Tiger Woods, big television audiences and big sponsors’ cheques.
Odds 5-1

Rugby sevens
Fast and exciting to watch, the abbreviated game has a good chance as Olympic officials seek more team sports to fill stadiums and boost TV ratings.
Odds 4-1

Squash The next logical leap for a sport that is a Commonwealth Games event, but it is burdened by the difficulty of watching a very small ball travelling at 160mph.
Odds 6-4

Baseball
The drugs issue, in which Major League Baseball stars have admitted to steroid use, has overshadowed the sport, which was kicked out at the last reshuffle for London 2012.
Odds 2-1

Softball
Although it joined the Olympic scrapheap in 2005, it has a strong case as an all-female sport but if women’s boxing is admitted for 2012, this argument would be undermined.
Odds 2-1

Karate
Most Olympic watchers think there are already too many baffling martial arts in the Games. The sport may claim 100 million participants worldwide but they are not the ones who are casting the vote.
Odds 2-1

Roller sports
The IOC is keen to grab the attention of young sports fans, but the vision — road racing but no skateboarding or roller hockey? — is muddled and the lobbying non-existent.
Odds 4-1

Odds offered by William Hill

Words by Ashling O’Connor