CANOC President Backs Latest Charge For Olympic Netball

[The Gleaner] Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) president, Keith Joseph, is backing the latest bid for netball to be added to the Olympic programme, critical of how many hurdles the sport has had to clear to join the throng of others being approved.

While netball has been on its list of recognised sports since 1995, its inclusion at the Olympics has not been successful after attempts at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and the 2008 Beijing Games.

Joseph lamented the fact that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has not been swayed enough given the game’s growth and evolution, particularly the introduction of the Fast-Five format.

“Despite the advances and changes made to the game of netball, the IOC has apparently not been impressed enough to reconsider the sport’s anxiety to be included on the Olympics’ competition programme. World Netball has introduced a much faster and shorter version of the game, ‘Fast Five’, which is particularly attractive to sports fans wherever the sport is played,” Joseph said.

“This is probably in an effort to appeal to the decision-makers at the IOC, whose choice of ‘new sports’ in the recent past may well have been based on such criteria. As yet, however, the Fast Five has not proven sufficient to cause a change of heart among the decision-makers.”

While there have been new sports that have been added to the programme recently, such as skateboarding and break dancing, which will make their debut next year, Joseph was critical of how netball continues to be left in the dark.

“For the leaders of international netball, it seems very unfair that it has been witness to a variety of ‘new’ sports that have come much later in its wake and found what appears to be an ‘easy passage’ through to the Games’ sports programme,” Joseph said.

“It would appear that the ‘goalposts’ in respect of what is required to get into the Olympic Games competition programme keep shifting, thereby rendering it all the more difficult to achieve one of its longest desires.”

International Netball Federation (INF) president Liz Nicholl has said the chances of having the sport on the programme would be increased if the Games were hosted by a strong netball nation.

Brisbane, Australia, has been awarded the 2032 Games, and Joseph believes this could represent the best possible chance for inclusion.

According to Joseph, the Caribbean should be advocating for Olympic inclusion as well, especially with the world standing of Jamaica.

“We have since seen the meteoric rise of Jamaica as a netball powerhouse in the sport, globally. There is every reason for us, as sport-loving people of the Caribbean, to readily commit to supporting the INF’s continued efforts at requesting that the sport be included in the sports programme of the Olympic Games,” Joseph said.

Cricket is also another sport that CANOC has voiced its support for being added to the Olympic programme, hoping to get approval for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.