Mixed tennis doubles will be played at the 2012 Olympics in London while changes were made to the track cycling programme by Olympic officials on Thursday, according to dpa. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board in Lausanne, Switzerland approved five men"s and five women"s track cycling events, while adding mixed doubles to the tennis programme which already features men"s and women"s singles and doubles. Sixteen teams will compete in the mixed tennis doubles in 2012, while in cycling, both men and women will now compete in the sprint, team sprint, keirin, team pursuit, and omnium - a multi-event discipline comparable to the decathlon in athletics. The men"s and women"s individual pursuit, men"s and women"s points race and men"s madison events were removed from the Olympic programme. There were seven events for men and three for women at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. The IOC said the changes were part of a desire to refresh the programme and increase women"s participation. "These changes in the track cycling programme bring the number of women cyclists at the Games to 84, up from 35 in Beijing," a statement said. "Women will now make up 45 per cent of the total number of track cyclists at the Games (compared to 19 per cent in Beijing)." President Jacques Rogge told reporters the board"s changes to the track cycling programme - including the decision to drop the popular individual pursuits - was taken on the advice of international cycling union UCI which believes the format will be more appealing. "You can always argue about one event," Rogge said of the decision to drop the individual pursuits. "It might be popular in countries where medals have won but not in countries where the medal prospects are not high." Meanwhile Olympic officials said Vancouver was on course with its preparations for the winter Games with just over 60 days to go. "We have again heard a positive report by the organizing committee VANOC," Rene Fasel, the chairman of the IOC coordination committee for Vancouver, said. VANOC chief executive John Furlong reported to the executive board with 64 days to go to the opening ceremony. Vancouver is hosting the Games from February 12 to 28.
