Operation Brisbane
Which new sports should make it for 2032?
WITH Brisbane locked in as host of the 2032 Summer Olympic Games, attention now turns to preparing southeast Queensland as the battleground for the world’s best athletes in 11 years’ time. But which athletes, exactly?
The swimmers and the runners will arrive in their hundreds in the quest for Games glory. But beyond the staple sports could be a handpicked few that will make the Brisbane Olympics unique.
In line with the Olympic Charter, each host city is entitled to propose the inclusion of one or more temporary sports to its Games program. In Tokyo it was skateboarding, sports climbing, surfing, softball/baseball and karate that joined the slate. And in the case of the first two in particular, it proved a massive hit with viewers.
Fast-forward to 2032, and the Brisbane Olympic Games Organising Committee (OGOC) will have the same opportunity to make a case for IOC-recognised sports.
Only sports that comply with the Olympic Charter and the World Anti-Doping Code are eligible to be included in the program.
Once the OGOC proposes an addition to the sport program, the IOC executive board convenes to send it to a vote by the IOC.
Sports are evaluated on seven key factors: history and tradition, universality, popularity, image, athletes’ health, development of the sport’s International Federation, and cost. The Olympic Charter also indicates that for a sport to be accepted, it must be practised by men in at least 75 countries across four continents, and for women 40 countries and three continents.
So which sports can we expect to be pushed to a vote ahead of Brisbane?
Here’s six early contenders.
SURFING
IT’S hard to see surfing leaving the Olympics any time soon, with the sport finding its Games footing at the perfect time.
Paris has already opted to include surfing on its 2024 program, and it’s difficult to see Los Angeles four years later not welcoming the sport to the famous Huntington Beach.
Likewise Brisbane, or more likely the Gold Coast, would prove an excellent host for an Olympic surfing competition. By then it could even be a permanent fixture, if outspoken International Surfing Association president Fernando Aguerre gets his lifelong wish. Until then, though, it will at least remain a frontrunner for reinclusion in 2032.
SKATEBOARDING
SKATEBOARDING received perhaps the most positive reception of the five new sports in Tokyo, particularly in Australia after Keegan Palmer’s incredible gold medal in the men’s park final.
One of the key tenets of a sport’s inclusion at the Games, according to the Olympic Charter, is to attract youth - and there is no doubt that skateboarding does just that. Paris has already opted in for 2024 and Los Angeles would be likely, leaving the Brisbane OGOC with a call to make.
BOWLS
ALREADY a Commonwealth
Games fixture, bowls had its Olympic request knocked back in 2015 - but that’s not to say the dream is dead.
Of the sports on this list, it would seem to have the most noteworthy credentials – one of which, obviously, being its continued inclusion at the Commonwealth Games as a core sport.
Bowls previously appeared at the 1988 Olympics as a demonstration sport, but not since.
It is not currently recognised by the IOC, which maintains it does not appeal to the younger demographic - something that has become a main sticking point to inclusion in the modern Games. es.
Fifty countries are member nations of World Bowls, making the sport’s reach one that is worthy of a place at the Games.
Earlier this year, Bowls Australia chief executive Neil Dalyrymple confirmed the governing body would push for inclusion in 2032 if Brisbane’s bid was successful.
NETBALL
LIKE bowls, netball has become a Commonwealth Games staple, and it feels like every Olympics go-around the noise gets a few decibels louder for its inclusion on the world stage.
Netball has appeared at every Commonwealth Games since Kuala Lumpur in 1998. Played by more than 20 million people in 80-plus countries worldwide, netball ticks the broad appeal box. And as one of the biggest sporting codes in Australia, it will likely be given every opportunity to feature in Brisbane.
The main hurdle will be its place as a female-only sport, though there is precedent. Softball, rhythmic gymnastics and artistic swimming all featured at Tokyo 2020, despite being exclusive to female athletes.
CRICKET
YOU knew this was coming. Long the sport that most confuses US fans, cricket is another that could jostle for inclusion on the 2032 slate.
The sport is set to make a Commonwealth
Games return in Birmingham next year, with a women’s Twenty20 tournament successfully voted in by the 72 member nations.
Consider it a trial run for potential inclusion in Brisbane at the newly renovated home of cricket in Queensland, the mighty Gabba.
Cricket was once – and only once – an Olympic sport. It featured at the 1900 Games in Paris, before being shelved. The advent of T20 cricket and its incredible popularity, particularly with young people, in the 2032 host country could go a long way to getting cricket over the line and into the Olympics.
IRONMAN / SURF LIFESAVING
THERE’S always an element of homerism from an Olympics host pushing popular sports front and centre at their local Games – see karate in Tokyo, for example – so it wouldn’t be a massive shock to ask for surf lifesaving’s inclusion to the Brisbane 2032 slate.
Importantly, surf lifesaving is recognised by the IOC even though it is not yet a registered Olympic sport.
Just as important, for Australia at least, is that the host country would easily be considered a gold medal favourite in the sport.
Nothing like another waterborne event to bolster our medal prospects.