Roller Derby Headed to the Olympics?
Roller Derby may be going headed to the Olympics. When the 123rd International Olympic Committee met in South Africa, IOC President Jacques Rogge announced the eight sports that will battle it out of a spot in the 2020 Olympics. Roller sports, sport climbing, baseball, softball, wakeboarding, squash, karate and wushu are being evaluated. Dancing, surfing, bowling and netball have already been cut from the running.
Roller derby has been steadily climbing up the ranks in popularity. A recent Olympic trend to the competition is to add events that provide high entertainment value and give a youthful appeal to the games. Derby will do just that. Programming is designed for maximum TV ratings and ticket sales. If you ever been around a derby event, you know they definitely draw the crowds.
Although one problem the sport may face is that the Olympics also have a reputation for not being very inclusive to women's sports. Case in point, softball was eliminated from that Games. This sport, like derby is primarily played by women. It also took court cases and worldwide protests to allow women ski jumpers to compete in the upcoming 2012 Games. This despite the fact that men have been participating in ski jumping since the inception of the Winter Games.
At the very least, Roller Derby deserves an exhibition at the Olympics, the sport has grown exponentially. According to the Roller Derby World Wide website, there are 940 amateur roller derby leagues found worldwide.
Rogge said a final list will be put to the vote at the IOC session in late 2013 for the one open spot.
The host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics has been chosen. The three cities in the running included Annecy, France; Munich, Germany and Pyeongchang, South Korea. After a vote, Pyeonchang, South Korea won.
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Published by Sylvie Branch - Featured Contributor in Lifestyle
Creative professional with a triple whammy of job titles; freelance writer, artist, educator. Sylvie was a Rising Star for Y!CN in 2009, was part of the Top 1000 in 2010 and won the Lifestyle award in 2011.... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentI'm so excited to hear this news! As a roller derby fanatic, who just doesn't have time to play anymore, I'll be watching closely.
wow farout! ...another sign of the decline hahaha