NEW DELHI: Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has said that the government will try to push for the inclusion of kabaddi in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
“Kabaddi is a perfect example of how an indigenous sport has grown successfully. This I feel is the beginning of the sports culture that we envisaged for India which is now becoming a reality,” Rijiju said while speaking on KBD Live at Star Sports Studio on Sunday.
“We will definitely push hard for Kabaddi to be part of the next Olympics as we are a billion plus powerful nation and so for this to become possible, we will have to put all our efforts together, but I am very confident about it.”
While one should not dampen the minister’s enthusiasm, maybe it would not be amiss for someone in the Indian Olympic Association to point out that following a vote at the International Olympic Committee session on June 25 in Lausanne, the IOC had stated categorically that no further sports can be put forward for inclusion on the programme of the 2024 Olympic Games.
For the record, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee had proposed four additional sports (breaking, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing) for its edition of the Games to the IOC.
Breaking and sport climbing both appeared as medal events at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018, while skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing will make their debut on the Olympic programme in Tokyo next year.
The proposal for the four sports builds on the evolution of the programme from Tokyo 2020 and includes 248 athletes, which will fit within the 10,500-athlete quota, with equal numbers of women and men. In-keeping with its commitment to host sustainable Games, Paris 2024 will use 95% existing or temporary venues to stage the competitions.
Following discussions with 19 IOC-recognised International Federations, Paris 2024 submitted its proposal to include breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing on the Olympic programme to the IOC. This proposal was then discussed and fully supported by the IOC’s Olympic Programme Commission, further strongly endorsed by the IOC Executive Board and put forward to the IOC Session.
The Olympic Programme Commission will now continue its analysis and observation of the four sports proposed by Paris 2024. This will include joint official observations at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with Paris 2024 and the Olympic Programme Commission.
The IOC executive board will make the final decision on the existing events, proposed new events and related athlete quotas for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in December 2020.
Including a new sport in the Olympic roster is a long-drawn and cumbersome process, which also requires intense lobbying, PTI notes.
A sport will have to first get recognition from the International Olympic Committee. Then, its governing body will have to become a recognised International Federation (IF) of the IOC. The sport’s IF will then apply for admittance as an Olympic sport by filing a petition establishing its criteria of eligibility to the IOC.
What can be surmised from this? There is no way kabaddi can be included among the sports represented in the programme of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
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