Olympic stage beckons for pole dancing as it is named a sport
IT WAS once considered solely as a risqué pursuit, performed in front of a paying clientele at late-night establishments.
But pole dancing has now been recognised by an international sporting body, following an 11-year battle by a British competitor to make the event an Olympic sport.
The Global Association of International Sports Federation (GAISF) has granted seven new events “observer status”, meaning they are provisionally recognised as sports.
It means that the International Pole Sports Federation (IPSF), founded by Katie Coates, 41, is now able to apply for membership of the International Olympic Committee.
If its membership is accepted, it will pave the way to pole dancing becoming an event at the Olympics.
At a national level, the British federation for pole dancing is now eligible to apply for national sports recognition through the Department for Digital, Culture and Sport. It is also permitted to apply for membership of UK Sport and the British Olympic Committee, which could allocate it national and UK Lottery funding in the future.
The announcement follows more than a decade of campaigning by Ms Coates, a pole dancing instructor, from Herts who set up the federation in 2009 after her petition for sports status garnered more than 10,000 signatures.
Since the federation was established, pole fitness has surged in popularity, with gyms and leisure centres holding classes across the UK. The IPSF, alongside arm-wrestling, dodgeball and a number of other events, has two GAISF’S requirements fully recognised sport.
They include becoming compliant with the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) and increasing membership across the world. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph last night, Ms Coates said pole dancing had achieved something previously thought “impossible”, adding that she was confident the event would become a regular fixture in the years to meet to become a Olympics. “In the early 2000s people started doing it as fitness and taking away the sex stigma, so no high heels and making it accessible for average people,” she said. “Pole dancing is not like everyone thinks it is, you need to actually watch it to understand. I feel like we have achieved the impossible, everyone told us that we would not be able to get pole dancing recognised as a sport.” Having grown rapidly since it was founded in 2009, the IPSF is now made up of 25 national federations.
Ms Coates said athletes had already been tested by WADA and none of them had failed. She added: “To officially become a sport you need federations in 40 countries across four continents, and they need to be recognised by the highest sporting body in their countries.”