Crowds flock to Alexandra Palace for the PDC World Darts Championship – could it catch on in the Olympics? – AP/Kin Cheung
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Cast your eye over the 32 sports taking place at the Olympics in Paris and 35 listed for Los Angeles and it becomes clear that the Olympics is now a broad church. So is there room in 2032 for chess or darts or snooker?
There is certainly an appetite from all three of those sports to be a part of the Olympics moving forward. Not only because of the enormous boost in exposure that comes with each sport being part of an Olympics – look at the growth of rugby sevens or BMX in recent Games – but what may come if they hold on to Olympic status.
“Each country in the world would be able to open an academy, to have sports funding for medal hopefuls,” explains Jason Ferguson, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. “It would change our landscape in the UK because the funding we get for projects to develop snooker in this country is tiny compared to other sports competing in the Olympics.
“It’s constantly a battle when you see snooker clubs closing and being turned into flats. Fortunately we have stopped the rot, new ones are opening, but it’s a constant cycle. We should have a national training centre with a national academy. It is very much on our agenda and would be a game changer in my view.”
A target to have snooker, classified as a precision sport by the International Olympic Committee, involved in Brisbane in 2032 is deemed as “realistic”, now that previous issues with other cue sports are closer to being resolved following the breakaway of the World Snooker Federation.
Snooker could even potentially make a return to the Paralympics before 2032. While it has never been part of the Olympics, snooker was one of the inaugural Paralympic events back in 1960, continuing until its last appearance at Seoul 1988.
Chess has been on the periphery of the Olympics since the launch of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) 100 years ago this year, although the governing body remains eager as ever to feature in future Olympics.
Sergey Karjakin facing World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in 2016 – Reuters/Mark Kauzlarich
A FIDE spokesperson told Telegraph Sport: “There are many reasons to include chess in the Olympics: it is a competitive sport with national and international competitions, it requires skill and extensive training, it has a rich history, and it is very popular and universally recognised.
“Like Olympic sports, chess also has doping controls. While primarily a mental effort, chess requires significant physical endurance to play, and many top players engage in physical training to improve their stamina and manage stress. We strongly believe that chess deserves a place in the Olympic Games, and we are confident that we will achieve this goal one day.”
And what about darts? Now a sporting juggernaut in the UK and with a global reach which might surprise those who only tune in for the PDC World Darts Championship at Christmas, more top players are calling for the sport to be included, including the world No 1 Luke Humphries.
“Right now in the UK, it’s probably the second or third most popular sport and it’s only growing and getting bigger in so many other countries,” he said. “So yeah, it’s probably the biggest sport that’s not in the Olympic Games and it probably should be.”
Which means by 2032, your own personal Olympics marathon on the sofa may be spent following the action as it leaves the rowing lake to head to the chess table, or departs the velodrome for the snooker hall.
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Publish date : 2024-08-09 11:53:15
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