By the time you read this, the Olympics will be but a memory. But right now, I get to turn it on every night and watch some great athletes striving for glory. And each morning when I go to work, I get asked the same two questions, “So why isn’t squash in the Olympics?” Or for those who just assume that it already is in the Olympics, “When are they going to show some squash?”
A few years ago, I wrote a column for a now-defunct local newsletter that addressed the first of these questions. There are four primary reasons why squash isn’t in the Olympics right now:
First, even though squash is a little over a hundred years old as a sport, it was not until 1967 that the World Squash Federation (then named the International Squash Rackets Federation) was even formed. Believe it or not, it wasn’t until the late 1980’s that anyone did anything about trying to get squash into the Olympics. So, when you look at it in terms of Olympic quadrennials, you are only talking about three Games where we have tried to get in. In other words, it hasn’t been as long as some think.
Second, the IOC is trying hard to lower the number of athletes who participate in the games. In fact, the IOC has been incredibly interested in decreasing the number of lower profile sports. Sydney, for example, announced that they would not hold any whitewater kayaking events because it would be too expensive to build a kayaking facility and there wasn’t enough interest. The IOC thought this seemed like a good idea; they apparently felt that if kayaking missed a Games that the sport might fade away, and they were okay with that. (Interestingly, the world kayaking federation was nervous about the same thing, so they were determined to make sure that they were not skipped over; they raised the money for the facility themselves, and faced with no costs, the IOC and Sydney relented.)
As a side note, many of you may wonder why then sports like rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized diving, and beach volleyball get in so easily. It turns out that there is a loophole that allows sports that are a “discipline of an existing sport” to have its path streamlined. Rhythmic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics, synchronized diving is a discipline of diving and beach volleyball is a discipline of volleyball. Just so you know, squash has tried to get in as a “discipline” of tennis. It didn’t fly.
Third, Squash needs to show that it can pull in the crowds and can make a lot of money. By our standards, squash has grown in popularity a lot, but in comparison with high revenue sports, the audience isn’t there.
Finally, as the scandals involving IOC members has shown, there has always been a cocktail party circuit aspect to getting things done with the IOC, and – quite frankly – squash has not played the cocktail circuit all that well.
This is frustrating as hell. Some of you may know that the IOC has created some high standards that any prospective sport must now meet. Squash meets them all (it is now required, for example, that a prospective sport be played by a minimum of 75 countries on at least four continents; squash is played by 127 on five continents). But just meeting the standards isn’t good enough. And, as the above makes clear, it is unlikely that it will happen anytime soon.
So let’s move on. The second question above (“when are they going to show some squash?”) is sort of moot since squash isn’t in the Games, but let’s assume, for a moment, that it is. I have some bad news for you: as long as NBC has the television rights to the Olympics, you probably won’t see squash on the tube. How much badminton did you watch this time around? How about table tennis? Unless the US produces someone who is a threat for the gold medal, NBC assumes that you are not interested.
(On the other hand, this might not always be true. Think about it: if squash were to get popular in the Soviet Union, and if some strapping Russian were to become good, and if that guy were to strike fear into the hearts of other players as he goes undefeated for, say, thirteen years or so, and then if that guy were to lose in the gold medal match to an American… Well, if that happens, I’m pretty sure that squash might get on television in the US for a solid five minutes – ten if the American acts like a jerk on during the medal ceremony.)
In many other countries, however, squash is a popular spectator sport – even on television. So if squash makes it into the Olympics, we probably won’t see much of it, but around the world it will help the game immensely. And, eventually, that will help the game for all of us. Don’t hold your breath, but do keep hoping; it would be great for the game we all love.
