Millions of people worldwide watch the Olympics on television. They are the largest staged sporting event with an enormous viewership. This is why at the winter Olympics we see skateboarding and extreme snow sports that are also new. There is a huge audience. Does racquetball appeal to the youth? We know that is should, and it certainly does in American and a few other countries, but not enough to qualify for the Olympics.
Well, clearly their federations put forward very positive arguments as to why they should be featured, and if they can be featured, so too could racquetball.
Games or sports have included and then — removed. Sometimes the appeal of the sport was just not enough to warrant the cost of staging the sport, Olympic style. If racquetball is going to be included at the Olympics, the sport and the players really need to show that they are going to stay. This means the appeal needs to be enormous. This is not to put pressure in any way on racquetball players. Those who are professional are under enough pressure as it is and we know they themselves would love to play competitively at the Olympic Games.
It is up to the various Federations to work hard at getting them accepted and increasing their profile and it is up to the same Federations to ensure they do not get removed. The more the sport is played and promoted, the better chance it has of being included. The difficulty with racquetball is that it is pretty similar well, not really, but in the eyes of the public to tennis, and tennis is already an Olympic sport.
There is no chance of racquetball being included in the summer Olympics; these are taking place in Tokyo, Japan, and there is not a lot of racquetball played in Japan. We have no doubt that the International Racquetball Association are doing all they can to highlight the sport of racquetball and are going to try their best to get racquetball included. The next summer Olympic Games are in Tokyo, Japan.
The official dates, including the opening and closing ceremonies, are 24 July to 09 August You can get a list of the venues, and of course all the sporting events, and tickets have been on sale for a while. The next winter Olympic Games are in Unless you are one of the lucky ones who can afford to get tickets and to travel to the Olympics, your best bet is to watch the Olympics on television.
There are usually several dedicated television channels so you can watch various sports simultaneously, or tape some sports and watch them later. There are always reruns and highlights too.
Again, in the USA and in Canada, and in some European countries, you may well find racquetball televised. You can also watch online, live, on various Youtube channels. We acknowledge that Youtube is not quite the Olympics, but it is a pretty special event either way! If racquetball wants to be included at the summer Olympics, it is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication.
In the meantime, racquetball is an exciting and wonderful ball game, fast and strategic, and certainly, popular in America and Canada. So if you want to watch great racquetball, look for it in these countries. With the amount of countries fielding national teams, you'd think the support is already there in the international community.
And that's what the Olympics is about, right? International competition - not just US interest in a sport. I mean, c'mon - is badminton really more popular than racquetball? I haven't played badminton since I was 10 in my best friend's backyard. One more thing Check out how many of those countries organisations are based in the USA!
Woody Clouse Eritrea!!!! C'mon, most of those countries don't have any courts let alone players in their nations. In europe for example, all the countries players are resident in their own country but due to lack of courts the game cannot expand.
Squash is huge, courts everywhere, no Racquetball courts and Squash isn't in the Olympics either although it is in the Commonwealth games. In Holland and England none in Scotland and for example their are just one or two clubs which have courts all the others are on USAF bases. Well, I didn't click on every link there. Consider me educated now. That brings up another question though - how can the IRF allow a country be a member if they don't even have a single court on their own soil?
Please tell me you are joking The are many new dynamic reasons for adding or deleting sports from the Olympics. TV and money plays a major roll, although not discussed publicly.
Security concerns and added security costs will also limit the budgets. Here is a brief explanation for guidelines for inclusion. In September at the IOC Session in Tokyo, in an attempt to cap the number of athletes and sports on the Olympic program to approximately 10, , the IOC approved tougher criteria for sports to be included.
Starting in the year , for those sports seeking inclusion or currently on the summer Olympic program, sports for men must be played in at least 75 countries on four continents before being considered for inclusion on the Olympic program and, for women, the sport must be contested in at least 40 countries and on three continents. Any new sport must be admitted to the Olympic program at least seven years before the next Olympic Games and, with a few rare exceptions, no changes are permitted after that time.
The standards for admission of disciplines or events to the Olympic program are very similar to those for a sport. A discipline a branch of an Olympic sport comprising one or several events, such as the discipline of alpine in the sport of skiing must have a recognized international standing and must also be admitted to the Olympic program no later than seven years before the next Olympic Games. An event a competition in an Olympic sport or discipline where medals or rankings are awarded must have both a numerical and geographical recognized international standing and have been included at least twice in world or continental championships in order to be considered for inclusion on the Olympic program.
Events can be admitted four years prior to a specific Olympic Games, with no changes permitted thereafter. To be added to the Olympic Winter Games program, a sport must be practiced widely in at least 25 countries on three continents. Even then, a sport might not be added to the Olympic Games lineup.
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