Squash officials refuse to give up on their Olympic dream
World SquashFederation vice-president Heather Deayton says they are encouraged by IOC chief Thomas Bach's move to adjust Games roster
Squash hasn't given up hope of being included at the 2020 Olympics with top official Heather Deayton encouraged by IOC president Thomas Bach's moves to add flexibility to the sports programme for the Tokyo Games.
"We have not given up hope. In fact, we have our fingers crossed squash will still be played at the 2020 Olympics now the IOC is looking at ways to increase the medal sports, while reducing the number of disciplines in those existing sports," said Deayton, World Squash Federation vice-president.
Squash lost its bid to become an Olympic sport at last September's IOC general assembly in Buenos Aires when members voted to reinstate wrestling, which received a majority of 49 votes, followed by a joint bid by baseball and softball (24 votes) and squash (22).
But hopes have been renewed with Bach wanting to put in place a new road map for the Olympic movement and has received feedback from 14 working groups created to discuss his recommendations for Olympic Agenda 2020, his strategic blueprint for the future.
The working groups comprised members from the IOC, athletes, representatives from the international federations, national Olympic committees and outside experts. Apart from looking at ways to reduce costs of staging Games, these groups also looked at proposals to increase the number of sports from the existing 28.
We have our fingers crossed squash will still be played at the 2020 Olympics
"We are very encouraged by this as we believe Bach wants more sports at the Olympics. The issue is he doesn't want to increase the number of athletes, keeping the cap at around 10,000 for the Summer Games, rather hoping to make room by reducing the number of disciplines in other sports," said the Hong Kong-based Deayton.