Squash has great future despite Olympic snub, says PSA, WSF
10 Sept 2013 4:47 AM IST
Despite being ‘devastated’ by IOC’s decision to choose wrestling ahead of squash as an additional sport to join the 2020 Olympic programme, the Professional Squash Association (PSA) on Monday stressed that the sport has a ‘great future’.
‘We are obviously devastated, not only for the whole sport and squash fans everywhere, but for the players, current and future that have worked so hard for this. We can be very proud of the efforts of everyone and none more so than our world number one Ramy Ashour, who has put in so much time into the bid process,’ said PSA CEO Alex Gough.
It was at Sunday’s meeting in Buenos Aires that squash, shortlisted with wrestling and baseball/softball as one of three sports being considered for addition to the 2020 Olympic programme, lost out to wrestling.
Gough said the presentation in Buenos Aires was something they can all be proud of and shows the great future that squash has, with or without the Olympics. ‘Our sport has much to offer the Games, let’s hope that this is not the end of our Olympic journey,’ he added.
World Squash Federation (WSF) president N Ramachandran, who led the presentation at the IOC session, admitted that he was ‘heart-broken’ at the decision. ‘The decision is heart-breaking for the millions of squash players around the world, particularly given the 10-year journey we have been on to join the Olympic Games sports programme. As the only new Olympic sport on IOC’s shortlist, we believed squash offered something for the future and I still hope that our inclusion may still be possible.
'The feedback we have received from many IOC members for our campaign and our presentation has been very positive and I am encouraged by the vote we received. We have much to offer the Olympic movement and I am hopeful that it is not the end of our Olympic journey,’ said Ramachandran.
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