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Just look at the 32 sports that will be featured in the Paris Olympics and the 35 listed for Los Angeles and it becomes clear that the Olympics are now a broad church. Will there be room for chess or darts or snooker in 2032?
There is certainly a hunger from all three sports to be part of the Olympics in the future. Not only because of the huge boost in exposure that each sport gets as part of the Olympics – look at the growth of rugby sevens or BMX in recent Games – but what could happen if they retained their Olympic status.
“Every country in the world could open an academy, to have sporting 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 minimal compared to other sports that compete in the Olympics.
“It’s a constant battle when you see snooker clubs closing and turning into flats. Thankfully we’ve stopped the rot, new ones are opening up, but it’s a constant cycle. We should have a national training centre with a national academy. It’s high on our agenda and would be a game changer for me.”
The goal of getting snooker, classified as a precision sport by the International Olympic Committee, back into action in Brisbane in 2032 is seen as “realistic” as previous problems with other billiards sports move closer to resolution following the split from the World Snooker Federation.
Snooker could even potentially make a return to the Paralympic Games by 2032. Although never part of the Olympic Games, snooker was one of the first Paralympic events in 1960, and remained so until its last appearance at Seoul 1988.
Since the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded 100 years ago, chess has not been central to the Olympic Games. However, the umbrella organization is still eager to participate in future Olympic Games.
A FIDE spokesperson told Telegraph Sport: “There are many reasons for including chess in the Olympic Games: it is a competitive sport with national and international competitions, it requires skill and extensive training, it has a rich history and it is very popular and universally recognised.
“Like Olympic sports, chess also has doping controls. Although chess is primarily a mental effort, it also requires considerable physical stamina to play, and many top players engage in physical training to improve their stamina and manage stress. We strongly believe that chess deserves a place in the Olympic Games, and we are confident that we will one day achieve this goal.”
And what about darts? Now a sporting giant in the UK and with a global reach that might come as a surprise to those who only tune in for the PDC World Darts Championship at Christmas, more top players are calling for the sport to be taken up, including world number one Luke Humphries.
“At the moment in the UK it’s probably the second or third most popular sport and it’s growing and getting bigger in so many other countries,” he said. “So yeah, it’s probably the biggest sport that’s not in the Olympics and it probably should be.”
That means that by 2032 you could be running your own Olympic marathon on the sofa after following the action from the rowing lake to the chess table, or from the cycle track to the snooker hall.
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