After an exhausting five year journey and nearly 80 year absence from the Olympic games rugby was successfully added for the 2016 summer games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 games the host venue of which is still to be awarded. Golf was also given the nod - though rugby received an over-whelming vote of 81-8 from the assembled committee.

While the fifteen-a-side version of rugby was last played at the games in 1924, this go around it will be Sevens - the abbreviated version of the sport that will see 12 men's and women's teams competing for gold in seven years time.

For Canadian rugby players, becoming part of the Olympic family will no doubt raise the profile of their sport. Canada's women's sevens team participated in the first Sevens World Cup in Dubai this past March, finishing a respectable 6th. On the men's side Canada participates in the International Rugby Board Sevens Series - regularly finishing strongly against the world's best sides in locales such as New Zealand, Hong Kong and for the first time in February 2010, Las Vegas.

Rugby Canada CEO Graham Brown is extremely pleased with the announcement and says the move into the Olympics will bring major exposure to both the men's and women's teams in Canada.

"We will have a chance to really shine at the Olympics and represent Canada well in both men's and women's sevens," said Brown from Rugby Canada's Richmond Hill, Ontario headquarters.

"We know we have the athletes to compete and with access to Olympic funding and the Canadian Olympic committee's involvement this will be an exciting few years as we ramp up what is already a well developed pair of programs within our various high performance teams."

Canadian High Performance Director Geraint John agrees, and says the success of Sevens will also help the profile and development of our Fifteen-a-side teams that will continue to compete in the men's and women's Rugby World Cup events every four years.

"It is outstanding," John said from a scouting trip in the UK. "We have been watching these developments closely and will be bringing a working group online now to activate some key initiatives that will raise the the profile of the game in Canada and help us develop the future Olympians."

First year Sevens coach Morgan Williams, a former player in both Sevens and Fifteens, says the fact his job now comes with Olympic rings is just another bonus.

"It probably never was on my radar as a rugby athlete and now coach to ever be involved in the

Olympics, so this is a special moment to be sure," he said from Victoria, BC. "I think we will see a lot of new athletes all of a sudden be aware of rugby and make themselves available because of the Olympic aspect."

The Olympic vote saw  presentations from both golf and rugby before the IOC held a final vote that welcomed Sevens and golf into the Olympic fold.