PSA CEO: Alex Gough on Squash's Inclusion at the Olympics

PSA SQUASHTV

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00:00 It's been a long, long journey.

00:02 Squash has probably been trying to get in the Olympic Games now for up to,

00:05 for almost 20 years.

00:06 And yeah, it's just huge, huge news for the sport.

00:10 We've had, I mean, we've had lots of experience over the last however many years.

00:13 And we've worked closely with World Squash in the last couple of bids.

00:18 So that bit was already a precedent.

00:21 And then with the Games being in the US for LA28,

00:24 obviously it was natural to them, you know,

00:26 for US Squash to be part of all of those conversations.

00:29 And it's been a fantastic collaboration.

00:33 There's been a lot going in in the background.

00:36 One thing that we were sort of told very early on was from LA28 point of view

00:41 was that they wanted everything to be much more behind sort of closed doors.

00:45 So no big kind of campaigns from any of the sports that were on the list.

00:50 And I think that has actually put us in good stead.

00:53 There's been a multitude of reasons over the years

00:56 that Squash hasn't been successful.

01:00 Some have been down to just bad timing.

01:01 Some have been down to just, you know, not being managed that well.

01:06 Some just being just plain unlucky.

01:08 And this time, this time the collaboration has been fantastic.

01:12 The work behind the scenes has been fantastic.

01:15 And it's just probably been a culmination really of all of those years

01:19 of putting ourselves, you know, in the best, putting the best foot forward.

01:24 And, you know, and LA28 really did believe in Squash

01:28 and put us on that proposed list to the IOC.

01:31 And then the IOC have obviously then ratified it and said yes to Squash.

01:36 It's always been one of those kind of holy grail moments for the sport.

01:39 And the main reason being is, well, there's a few main reasons.

01:42 One of them is the profile that the Olympic Games brings.

01:46 You know, it really does put sports,

01:48 especially kind of, you know, sports that are lower down on the sort of sporting ladder.

01:52 You know, it really does give them that recognition and that platform

01:56 to a wider sporting stage.

01:59 And then quite simply then in terms of funding and the way these sports are funded.

02:04 So, you know, the national federations and the regional federations

02:07 will get much more support locally, you know, from governments

02:11 and from different sort of funds.

02:12 And, you know, and the same will happen with World Squash.

02:14 You know, there will be a big influx of support, you know, financially

02:19 that will hopefully really, you know, help push the sport forward.

02:23 We've always been firm believers in how amazing our sport is,

02:27 you know, and the athletes that we have in the sport.

02:30 When you look at the statistics of, you know, an average heart rate being 170 beats a minute,

02:35 you know, an average match length of 50 minutes with, you know, at that sort of level.

02:40 The ball's in place 63% of the time, I think it is.

02:43 You know, the level of athleticism is just phenomenal.

02:48 And so for us to be able to display, you know, squash to a much wider audience is,

02:53 you know, I think squash really deserves to be there.

02:56 I was lucky enough to play in some Commonwealth Games, played in three of those.

03:00 And they, you know, the multi-sport games really are truly fantastic for any athlete,

03:06 you know, whatever sport you are.

03:07 You just get that sense of camaraderie between all of the different sports.

03:12 And the Olympics is the pinnacle of that, you know, so there'll be lots of sort of past,

03:17 you know, very famous players within the sport, the Nicole Davids of the world,

03:21 you know, Rami Ashour, Nick Matthew, you know, the list will go on and on of players

03:26 that will be a bit gutted that they never got the opportunity.

03:30 But they will also be the first in line to be, you know, very, very excited that the sport's finally made it.

03:37 You know, it's their legacy really over the last probably, you know, 10, 20, 25 years that's helped put us there.

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