Cue sports are making a push to be included in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Former snooker world champion Shaun Murphy was part of a group that launched cue sports’ bid to be included at the Paris Olympics back in November 2018.
Billiard sports were backed by the French Billiard Federation and started the campaign at the Eiffel Tower (where else?).
A bid was placed for cue sports to be included in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Unfortunately, those efforts fell through a few years ago. Billiard sports face plenty of opposition and a probable uphill battle to make it to Paris.
Some would suggest it doesn’t require enough physical exertion to be included in the Olympics. Getting a new sport admitted to the Olympics requires years of campaigning and needs the support of IOC delegates.
The Tokyo Olympics sees the addition of several new sports. Baseball, softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding all have events taking place this summer.
Wrestling was dropped from the ‘core’ list – there will be a total of 33 sports at the Tokyo Olympics.
Widespread Participation
Snooker is popular in China, and that’s only been helped by the successes of Ding Junhui. Participation figures in the United Kingdom might be limited to around 25,000 per Statista, but tens of millions play in China.
Unfortunately, it isn’t a worldwide sport.
There are only eight non-British players in the top 30 of the world rankings. Five of those are from China, world number 20 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is from Thailand and the well-known Neil Robertson, currently second in the rankings, is Australian.
World number 39 Hossein Vaffaei and number 36 Luca Brecel are the first players from a ‘new’ nation, representing Iran and Belgium respectively.
Being focussed on a small group of countries doesn’t rule snooker out, though. Other Olympic sports are limited in the same sense – China have dominated the medals in table tennis, for instance.
As Murphy said at the launch of the bid, snooker is a sport that is inclusive unlike most others, “It’s not about are you a man, are you a woman, are you a young person, are you a senior, we are complete level sports,”.
There’s the potential for a mixed snooker or eight-ball pool tournament at the Olympics. It is one of only a handful of potential Olympic sports that could break the gender barriers.
A list of the biggest sports in the world, generated through amount online coverage, placed snooker 19th, ahead of Olympics staples field hockey, handball and gymnastics. Audience figures, according to an article in 2017, are growing worldwide.
Skill Level
Anyone who has tried to play snooker will understand where Murphy was coming from when he said, “It’s not like kicking the football into the goal or hit the ball with a golf club. Billiards sports are, I believe, the most difficult range of sport in the entire world,”.
Darts, like cue sports, hasn’t been entered into the Olympics and much of the opposition is because of the physical effort required.
The necessary skill to exceed at snooker and darts is sometimes overlooked, and that shouldn’t be forgotten about as part of the push for its inclusion in the 2024 Olympics.
It perhaps opens a greater discussion about the point of, and what the Olympics should be about.
Believing it is a case of showcasing the best athletes on earth would sway away from snooker. There’s not exactly a case to be built of snooker as a physically gruelling sport.
If the Olympics is about more than physical attributes. If it is to show skill, application and focus as well, then it’s very hard to argue against snooker deserving a place.
As Murphy touched on, snooker is a sport requiring immense touch, a sport that needs years of practise before you can avoid embarrassment, let alone compete with Ronnie O’Sullivan, the greatest snooker player of all-time.
Snooker Has A Strong Case
Shooting events are in the Olympics. Dressage is too.
Criticisms of snooker’s place in the Olympics need to be stronger than traditional arguments about physical strain.
There’s a balance between athletic challenge and pure skill in each and every sport. It’s a spectrum, with snooker and darts at one end and sprinting at the other.
Wanting the Olympics to be about the peak of ‘traditional’ sports, an exhibition of the strongest, fastest human beings is okay. For that to be the case, though, the current list of Olympic sports would need tweaking.
In its current form, the Olympics is inclusive of a wide range of sports. That’s a good thing. Along those lines, there’s barely a case for opposing snooker.
Whether most of the world are familiar with who has won the most UK snooker championship titles is irrelevant.
Part of the fun watching the Olympics is taking in sports that you otherwise wouldn’t, and witnessing competitors excel on the biggest stage of their careers.
Murphy claimed the Olympics could become the pinnacle of snooker. That should be key.
Expanding the Olympics and giving different sports a chance for all-important exposure every four years, is a positive.
Helping the growth of snooker might not be a motivating factor for the IOC, but the arguments against putting in for Paris 2024 – even if with no longer commitment – are flaky.
Assuming it fits into the calendar properly – unlike comparative efforts with other sports – it will attract the biggest names in the world. It’s never going to be a sport adored by the masses, but that’s not what the Olympics is about.
Snooker, and the other cue sports, have every right to be in the Olympics. It’s long overdue.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Aijaz Rahi / AP Photo*
