Cast your eye over the 32 sports taking place at the Olympics in Paris and 35 listed for Los Angeles and it becomes clear that the Olympics is now a broad church. So is there room in 2032 for chess or darts or snooker?
There is certainly an appetite from all three of those sports to be a part of the Olympics moving forward. Not only because of the enormous boost in exposure that comes with each sport being part of an Olympics – look at the growth of rugby sevens or BMX in recent Games – but what may come if they hold on to Olympic status.
“Each country in the world would be able to open an academy, to have sports funding for medal hopefuls,” explains Jason Ferguson, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. “It would change our landscape in the UK because the funding we get for projects to develop snooker in this country is tiny compared to other sports competing in the Olympics.
“It’s constantly a battle when you see snooker clubs closing and being turned into flats. Fortunately we have stopped the rot, new ones are opening, but it’s a constant cycle. We should have a national training centre with a national academy. It is very much on our agenda and would be a game changer in my view.”
A target to have snooker, classified as a precision sport by the International Olympic Committee, involved in Brisbane in 2032 is deemed as “realistic”, now that previous issues with other cue sports are closer to being resolved following the breakaway of the World Snooker Federation.
Snooker could even potentially make a return to the Paralympics before 2032. While it has never been part of the Olympics, snooker was one of the inaugural Paralympic events back in 1960, continuing until its last appearance at Seoul 1988.
Chess has been on the periphery of the Olympics since the launch of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) 100 years ago this year, although the governing body remains eager as ever to feature in future Olympics.