Squash chief not taking Olympic spot in Brisbane 2032 for granted

NAGOYA, Japan, Sept 28 - Squash may have secured its long-awaited Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, but the chief of the sport's global governing body is acutely aware of budget and venue squeezes and is not taking a spot at the Brisbane 2032 Olympics in Australia for granted.

While World Squash is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to retain its Olympic spot, banking on the game's expanding global footprint and plug-and-play sustainability, its president Zena Wooldridge took a pragmatic view of things.

"It's been a long journey, and we have to be patient. We don't know whether we will be in there or not," Wooldridge told Reuters at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

"I think because we've sat on the edge of being Olympic for so long, we really do appreciate the value of being included on the Olympic programme," she said.

"The realities of organising a modern Olympics is very different these days, in terms of the economic constraints — big ambitions and big aspirations, but actually smaller budgets and in Brisbane's case, fewer venues than LA has got."

Rather than entering negotiations with rigid infrastructural demands, Wooldridge said World Squash has adopted a lean, collaborative model tailored to ease pressure on local organising committees.

"Our approach is to work with the organising committees to say, 'look, what's your strategy? What are your challenges? And we'll work with you to address those challenges'.

"We're not coming in and saying, 'look, these are our specifications, you must deliver this, this, this, and this.' "

Instead, the sport's pitch rests on its portability, modularity, and ability to drop into existing or multi-use spaces without leaving white elephants behind.

"We are a bit like a snail, we bring our own home with us. We're small and compact. We can deliver a major event on a single court, and we can share the venue," Wooldridge said.

ASIAN GIANTS

She singled out women's squash as "a fantastic product", and referred to the global spread across the top 15 in both the men's and women's world rankings to underline the sport's universality.

Also pushing squash's case for Olympic retention is its rapidly expanding footprint across the world's two most populous nations — India and China.

In India, government backing is accelerating elite success as demonstrated by world junior champion Anahat Singh's Asian Games silver on Sunday.

China, meanwhile, is emerging as the structural engine of the game's next phase of growth  — both as a host and a manufacturing hub.

Chengdu is set to host the World Junior Championships next year at a newly constructed facility housing 21 courts. China also stepped in at short notice to stage the Asian Junior Championships in May after the event was relocated from Iran.

Crucially for squash's Olympic sustainability pitch, Chinese manufacturers are driving down the price of glass courts historically sourced from Europe.

"These are less than half the cost of a European court," Wooldridge said of the structures that can be dismantled and re-purposed.

"It's kind of changing and revolutionising that the whole way that we look at our sport, and I love that." REUTERS