IOC News Goes Unnoticed

Published: 23 Feb 2006 - 09:37 by raystrach

Updated: 23 Feb 2006 - 09:40

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A small Squash news article of the last few days is probably one of the important events in Squash for the past decade. Read the article here

You may be aware that the IOC recently deleted some sports for the 2012 London Games but did not endorse any new sports (squash was one of the main candidates) due to an anomoly in the voting system. Read these links for the full story.
British Olympic story
A US Take on it
WSF Story

The reason was Tunku Imram's appointment is so important, is that Squash has now get a member in the "Club". Being a very conservative club, they do not like change and they tend to protect their own. Any notion of the IOC selecting sports because they deserve it should be quickly forgotten. It has almost nothing to do wih merit. At least now the IOC does have a process where sports must fulfill certain criteria to be considered for selection, but getting selected is another matter.

Up until now, all our efforts have been from the outside looking in. Tunku Imram has a good reputation in the international sporting community, but there is nothing like being a member of the club - as they say, it is not what you know but who you know. Now we have an insider who can convince his club mates of the merits of Squash.

I hope this does not come back to haunt me, but if the next Olympics is held in a country where Squash is played (ie not Iceland or Russia), Squash will be a shoo in for participation. We will just have to wait for about three years to find out. That is, if they don't change their minds before then and include it in the London Games.