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Squash and the
Olympics:
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAY |
Nicol David Natalie
Grainger
James Willstrop
Graham Ryding
Fiona Geaves
Anthony Ricketts
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 "It
would be the biggest prize in squash, I've no
doubt.
All the players feel the same.
"To compete in the Olympics
would be the ultimate achievement for me."
James Willstrop
World #8
World Junior Champion |
 "As
a professional squash player it would be the ultimate
goal in my career to win an Olympic Gold Medal - I
have goose bumps just thinking about it!
"Nothing would be bigger in our sport, it would
outshine any other accolade one could win, and it
would be the greatest achievement for the sport.
"The decision is being made on July 8th, which
happens to be my Birthday, what a great present that
would be, to be included in the Olympics! "
Natalie Grainger
World #4
WISPA President
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 "Getting
selected for the Olympics will give us the
opportunity to take the sport where it deserves to go.
"It's a bloody hard sport to play. There wouldn't be many
sports where you have to train as hard as in squash.
"It'll help us get better TV slots, and that'll help us pull more
people to the sport. So, yeah, it's going to be an important day for
everyone involved in squash."
Anthony Ricketts
World number 7 |
 ''Squash
is a people's sport, a sport played all over the
world ... let's make it an Olympic sport.
"The time has
come for its overdue recognition on the ultimate
World stage in 2012''
Fiona
Geaves
World #16, British
O35 Champion |
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 Nicol's
Olympic
Dream
As a squash player playing the professional circuit in the WISPA
tour I have to put it out there on the importance to have Squash as
an Olympic sport to me and to any other squash player.
Squash is such a well known sport throughout the world with
established squash federations that has been around running world
reknowned tournaments through the years. It is hard to grasp the
fact that squash was still being neglected in past Olympics even
though it covers every aspect of a complete all round sport.
 The
Olympics is the highlight of every top athlete in any area of sport.
A medal at the Olympics shows the prestige of being the best in what
you do and having a status with all the best athletes in their
respective sport. Every athlete's dream is to be part of the biggest
games in the world. Being a professional squash player and only
watching it happen just does not seem right.
Squash has been in all other major games and I am a medalist in most
of them, that is the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and SEA Games.
When I am given the opportunity to represent Malaysia in any of
these games, it is overwhelming every time. Winning a silver medal
in the Commonwealth Games it is an experience I can never describe
because in squash that is the biggest games for us at the moment.
 Imagine
the intensity of it when squash is in the Olympics and earning that
first medal there would just be an incredible accomplishment that
tops everything else.
Nothing can compare to an Olympic medal.
The closest I have got to
participating in the Olympics is when the Malaysian public voted for
me to be one of the torch bearers in the Athens Olympic Games. The
popularity of squash in Malaysia has grown tremendously after the
Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur 1998 so that the awareness of the
public towards squash made this happen for me.
Squash was not in the Olympics then in Athens, but I sure felt I was
part of it all. Just as a torch bearer representing my country was
the hype of my life, what more playing the sport in the Olympics
which brought me to run the torch in the first place.
We have to be given a place in the Olympics because we deserve that
spot in 2012.
Thank you. Yours sincerely
Nicol David
World No. 3, 2 x World Junior Champion |
 "It
would appear that the top squash players
throughout the world today feel that if squash were to
be included in the Olympic Games, this would by and
large be the pinnacle squash event of their careers."
"If one considers the scope of nations in which squash
is played, the recent growth of the PSA men's tour,
the WISPA women's tour, and the international junior
circuit, squash is truly a global sport.
"Viewership of the sport is at unprecedented levels
due to the continuous developments within television
and web streaming.
"All of these ingredients suggest squash would be a
valuable addition to the Olympic Games."
Graham Ryding
World #13,
PSA Director
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