Causing quite the racquet: It’s finally game on for squash at the Olympics
From the start, the game has drawn people with the force of an addiction.
A dark ball thwacked from wall to wall, two people locked in combat in a cage-like arena, the flowing movement of the racquet alongside the thud of lunging feet, the grace of a spun shot against the violence of pure power – squash has it all.
Along with tennis and badminton, it completes the trinity of most popular racquet sports in the world.
Once an “elite” game played in clubs, it has broken free of those shackles to spread deep and wide, helped along by its inclusion into major multi-sports events such as the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games (both in 1998).
There was an early effort to have it included in the Olympic, in 1992; five more attempts between the 2000 Sydney Games and the 2020 Tokyo Games. Each time, the effort failed.
“Squash has a long and distinguished history of being snubbed when it comes to getting into the Olympics,” says Andrew Shelley, who was chief executive officer of the World Squash Federation (WSF) from 2010 to 2019. “We came closest when it was announced that baseball/softball was being taken out of the London 2012 programme and squash was voted top of the list of sports vying for those spots.”
Eventually, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to retain baseball/softball.
Then, at Rio 2016, squash lost out to golf and rugby sevens. Tokyo 2020 spelled déjà vu. The IOC decided to drop wrestling to bring in a new sport and squash was, again, top of the list. Then IOC put wrestling back in the programme.
Sometimes the longest of waits bears the sweetest returns.
The upcoming Games will be the last to ignore squash. It is part of five new additions to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, along with cricket, lacrosse, flag football and baseball/softball (which has been dropped in Paris 2024). For the racquet game, this ends a 30-year-itch.
