Coll fires up over squash omission
Top New Zealand men’s squash player Paul Coll has hit out at news his sport has again been snubbed for inclusion in the Olympic Games.
Squash’s hopes of finally becoming an Olympic sport were again crushed when the four additional proposed sports for Paris 2024 were announced yesterday.
Along with chess, billiard sports and karate (with the latter to feature next year in Tokyo), squash was overlooked in favour of breakdancing, climbing, skateboarding and surfing, with those four sports to await final approval from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in December next year.
Climbing, skateboarding and surfing have already been confirmed for Tokyo 2020, while breakdancing was held at last year’s Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
Though squash has been held at the Commonwealth Games since 1998, it is now four times the sport has unsuccessfully campaigned for Olympic inclusion.
Coll, the world No 6, who is in Chicago in preparation for the world championships which start this weekend, couldn’t believe what he was waking up to, posting on Twitter: ‘‘Woke up to this news at 6am. It’s now 8:14am. And still can’t process what the f$&@ is going on!? #help’’
A 2024 Olympics could have been a real target for 26-year-old Coll, if perhaps a stretch too far for top Kiwi women’s player Joelle King, the 30-year-old who’s at No 3 in the world.
In a statement, the World Squash Federation and Professional Squash Association met news of their sport being overlooked ‘‘with great disappointment’’.
‘‘The proposed list of four sports only, of which three sports are already confirmed by the IOC on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic programme, leads to a belief that Paris 2024 and the IOC favoured sports already in the Olympic programme, leaving practically no opportunity for other sports,’’ it read.
In a separate statement, PSA chief executive Alex Gough explained the process that was gone through, and some frustration at the timelines of decisions.
Gough noted squash had made huge strides in areas such as innovation, equality, sustainability and youth engagement – all of which matched criteria required for Paris 2024 and the IOC.
‘‘We truly believe squash could seamlessly integrate into the Olympic programme with minimal costs and an optimised pool of participants,’’ the WSF/PSA statement read.
‘‘Our unique interactive glass court would allow squash to bring a lot of additional excitement and spectacular action to any iconic monument of the host city or shed a new light on less known urban areas, while also helping to engage young people in the sport from day one of the preparations and well beyond the Olympic Games.’’