When the Beijing Olympics kick off next month, athletes will be competing for the highest prize in world sport. Yet, for the struggling federations of non-Olympic fringe sports, the competition starts much earlier. Before any discus is thrown or gymnastic routine is judged, sports federations must compete for inclusion into the games.
With the prize of a spot at the Olympics obviously increasing a sport’s revenue and profile, the race for medal-winning status is fierce.
The problem is, the modern Olympics are just too full. For Beijing there are 28 sports, with some such as aquatics and gymnastics encompassing various disciplines. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) regularly assesses the state of the Games, adding and subtracting sports, though the recent move to cut baseball and softball from London 2012 was the first reduction since 1939.
For the IOC to add a sport the candidate must be a recognised member sport ”widely practised by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents and by women in at least 40 countries on three continents”. Just as with athletes, individual sports must compete and qualify to be included in the games. Here are 10 sports with Olympic ambitions that didn’t make Beijing.
Squash
The squeaky indoor sport, with an estimated 153 nations playing on about 50 000 courts worldwide, requires high levels of fitness and can be great fun to play.
But at the highest level it remains a mostly European contest. For the IOC the last continental championships saw worryingly few contestants from Africa, America and Asia. Somehow the sight of two sweaty athletes locked up in a glass box doesn’t spark much media attention.
Karate
It’s the kind of sport you just assume is already in the Olympics. Since the Karate Kid movies, the Japanese martial art has spread to 168 federations, linking about 50-million competitors.
Yet, while kids the world over pull on their whites and practise their roundhouse kicks, a very low number of countries chose to broadcast the last Karate World Cup. Its defensive style, with protracted moments of inaction followed by bursts of high-speed counter-attack, doesn’t make it the kind of sport you’d choose to sit down and watch on a Saturday afternoon.
Rugby Sevens
The faster and shorter version of the 15-man game has grown in popularity in recent years. Now a massive money-spinner, it attracts raucous crowds to stadiums across the world.
The London organisers of the 2012 Olympics estimated that a two-day tournament with 12 countries would raise about £7,5-million (more than R100-million). More than money, though, the sport would also bring with it the kind of headlines journalists drool over. With the sport giving tiny island nations such as Fiji and Samoa a chance, it’s got Olympics written all over it.
Sumo
This other Japanese martial art, with its chubby men and comical rituals, has been the butt of so many jokes it’s hard to see it taking up a place at the Olympics. But the Japanese Sumo Federation is determined to get the ancient, religious performance medal-winning status. However, with its religious regulations barring women from the ring, or dohyo, it looks as if it will be a long time before we start seeing these massive men in their loincloths bowing to accept gold and silver medals.
Ballroom Dancing
The quickstep, rumba and waltz may not immediately seem like Olympic material, yet Dancesport, as it is now known, has been accepted and registered by the IOC.
Though this does not mean contestants will soon be jiving up to the Olympic podium, the high level of skill and fitness needed by professional competitors attracts a large support base. Supporters will also argue that if rhythmic gymnastics and synchronised swimming are acceptable, why not a competitive ballroom dance competition?
Ten-pin Bowling
Played in rented shoes by kids and awful amateurs the world over, bowling’s estimated 150-million players from 125 nations puts it in the top five of non-Olympic sports.
Apart from the satisfaction garnered from destroying the neat rows of pins, the appeal for players lies in the game’s simplicity. It’s this same simplicity though that holds it back. Unlike curling, the winter equivalent that was included in 1992, there appears to be little strategy or teamwork. For now it seems bowling’s Olympic bid is a gutter ball.
Wushu
For many of those living outside this year’s host nation, Wushu might sound like something you’d avoid at a Chinese restaurant. In fact, it refers to a collection of full-contact martial-art disciplines that originated in the old Empire.
It was put forward for inclusion into the Beijing Games but failed. Although the disciplines have a growing international following, with it not making the Games in its homeland it’s hard to see the sport ever breaking into the Olympic line-up.
Golf
Ernie Els supports the inclusion of golf into the Olympics. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, is impassive. For him and many players, a gold medal would come a distant third to the Claret Jug of the British Open or the green jacket from the Masters. With the golfing calendar already crammed with high-profile events, the Olympics would almost certainly clash with PGA tournaments. Many of the biggest names might then choose not to attend. As this is what got baseball excluded, for now an Olympic golf tournament looks an unlikely shot.
Rollersports
Rollersports — in-line speed skating, roller hockey and roller figure skating — faces a dilemma. The IOC is concerned about what it calls ”teenage skating activities” outside the federation’s control.
Ironically it is these skating teenagers, with their hoodies and baggy jeans, who draw in the crowds. While the teenagers compete for their own medals in front of sprawling crowds at international X-Games, rollersports seems like a bland, mock-up of ice-skating events.
Chess
Players in Russia do physical training to build up their stamina for chess. In a five-hour match players have been known to lose more body weight than a boxer in a 12-round fight.
An estimated 285-million people play the game in 160 countries, with 7,5-million of them registered, making it the biggest federation after football. But it’s difficult to see chess joining the other medal-contending sports. If it does, the card game bridge, with its federation also recognised by the IOC, will be in for a shout. And then what’s next? Scrabble? Wii Sports?