What's On My Mind
by Pierre Bastien

You Be the Judge

March 11, 2014

Did you hear that squash tried to get into the Olympics and didn't make it? Of course you did.

Many of those who wanted squash in the Olympics have been doing extensive soul-searching these past few months. We've been questioning the amount of lets. We've been questioning the very idea of lets. Our business model needs work. We wanted it too badly. The voting process was unfair. The IOC is corrupt. There's bad blood between the IOC and squash. The refereeing is inconsistent. The scoring system is wrong. There's not enough money in it. There aren't enough grassroots efforts.

Whew.

Here's what I want to say today: the IOC doesn't get to decide whether squash is "worthy". The only person who gets to decide that is you, the person who is going to grab a racket and actually play squash this week.

If you have ideas on how to improve the game, that's cool. If you want to try out some different rules or a different scoring system, give it a shot. (This sport has been around for over a hundred years -- you won't break it.) If you really want squash in the Olympics, that's cool. But please, please don't look to the IOC for external validation that squash is awesome. You don't need a thumbs-up from them or anyone. If you love squash, just go out and play it.



Pierre Bastien publishes www.SquashSource.com.


What's On My Mind is a column by rotating authors.
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