Joint statement from World Squash Federation (WSF) and Professional Squash Association (PSA) 21 February 2019
WSF and PSA have met the announcement on
the proposed selection of additional sports for the Paris 2024 Olympic
Programme with great disappointment.
The proposed list of four sports only, of
which three sports are already confirmed by the IOC on the Tokyo 2020
Olympic programme, leads to a belief that Paris 2024 and the IOC
favoured sports already in the Olympic programme, leaving practically
no opportunity for other sports.
The unity that our sport enjoys globally is
exceptional and is getting stronger by the day. WSF and PSA are
supported by the entire squash community and, with our athletes at the
forefront, have run a strong campaign that respected the timeline and
the criteria set by Paris 2024 and the IOC. During the campaign, we
showed that squash has a vibrant and real forward-looking programme
rooted in constant innovation, which strives for more inclusiveness and
sustainability, youth engagement and equality across all of our
activities in and outside of the court.
We truly believe squash could seamlessly
integrate into the Olympic programme with minimal costs and an
optimised pool of participants. Our unique interactive glass court
would allow squash to bring a lot of additional excitement and
spectacular action to any iconic monument of the host city or shed a
new light on less known urban areas, while also helping to engage young
people in the sport from day one of the preparations and well beyond
the Olympic Games.
