World Games, Chengdu China, Aug. 7-17, 2025

Looks like the billiards category starts August 10. I love the mascots, Shu Bao the Giant Panda and Jin Zai the Golden Monkey, holding pool cues.

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Shared by Kristina about an hour ago. Efren is there supporting the Filipino competitors. Anyone who gets a smilin' Efren photo has a great piece of pool memorabilia.

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What a joke.
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Some players are from countries where there is a lucrative reward for medaling. But this is what I think of when people say pool should be in the Olympics. They picture a $1MM prize 256 player field of the world’s best like we see with current world championships. Would it really be any better than what we get for the World Games… 12 players on 1 table?!?
 
... Some players are from countries where there is a lucrative reward for medaling. But this is what I think of when people say pool should be in the Olympics. They picture a $1MM prize 256 player field of the world’s best like we see with current world championships. Would it really be any better than what we get for the World Games… 12 players on 1 table?!?
The IOC has said they want to cap the total number of athletes. There is no way cue sports could ever see 256 players at the Summer Games including all the disciplines, let alone at pool. Many sports have some kind of regional qualification or playoff system to get to the Summer Games. Such a system for pool could have a lot of participants in total with only a few in the finals. A major requirement is guaranteed wide international represenation at the Summer Games, which is generally achieved in cue sports by having continental quotas.
 
The IOC has said they want to cap the total number of athletes. There is no way cue sports could ever see 256 players at the Summer Games including all the disciplines, let alone at pool. Many sports have some kind of regional qualification or playoff system to get to the Summer Games. Such a system for pool could have a lot of participants in total with only a few in the finals. A major requirement is guaranteed wide international represenation at the Summer Games, which is generally achieved in cue sports by having continental quotas.

I’m following the process. It’s the end result that bugs me. 12 players. TWELVE PLAYERS. It’s a meaningful prize for a meaningless field. One argument heard in Snooker is that if The Olympics is not the pinnacle of achievement in your sport, it shouldn’t be in The Olympics. I’m confident The World Games answers that question.
 
might as well shelve the idea of cue sports in olympics. all this effort for something that pops up every four years.. better to focus on making pro pool financially viable every year (preferably without dependence on government money) and a junior / feeding tour that's clear and well structured
 
How were the players chosen?
In other sports there is an olympic criteria or qualification stages.
And how can Kristina Tkach play without a country.
This whole thing is weird...
 
Here is the stream channel on YouTube. I just discovered it now. The competitions are nearly done.

 
All quarterfinalists on the men's side are at least Fargo 796, so it's an elite final eight, but twelve players seems too few to me. Good luck to those who remain.
 
I’m following the process. It’s the end result that bugs me. 12 players. TWELVE PLAYERS. It’s a meaningful prize for a meaningless field. One argument heard in Snooker is that if The Olympics is not the pinnacle of achievement in your sport, it shouldn’t be in The Olympics. I’m confident The World Games answers that question.
might as well shelve the idea of cue sports in olympics. all this effort for something that pops up every four years.. better to focus on making pro pool financially viable every year (preferably without dependence on government money) and a junior / feeding tour that's clear and well structured

Plenty of sports don't have the Olympics as the pinnacle of their sport. I think that's actually the sign that a sport is healthy and financially viable.

It also makes sense to me that there would be a limited set of participants in the Olympics. This should be a showcase of the best each country has to offer, and there should be qualifiers or qualification criteria to whittle down the field BEFORE the Olympics.

For example, for the 100m sprint (probably the most popular event), only 56 runners participated. Given the number of runners in the world, this is obviously an incredibly select group of athletes, as it should be.
 
... It also makes sense to me that there would be a limited set of participants in the Olympics. This should be a showcase of the best each country has to offer, and there should be qualifiers or qualification criteria to whittle down the field BEFORE the Olympics...
Yes, the top athletes should be there, but for cue sports there are a couple of reasons why that didn't happen this time.

One issue is that there has to be world-wide participation. Some regions are just weak. At pool, there are few, if any, 750+ players in Africa, for example.

Another issue is political stuff. There were no top snooker players at the World Games in either division. The pro and amateur organizations, which had co-membership in the WCBS years ago, are feuding.

Finally, there is scheduling. The Florida Open and the World Games had major overlap. The scheduling at pool is partly political stuff.

The number of players in each division is lower than in the past because of the addition of more divisions. That includes the new women's divisions and heyball.
 
I’m following the process. It’s the end result that bugs me. 12 players. TWELVE PLAYERS. It’s a meaningful prize for a meaningless field. One argument heard in Snooker is that if The Olympics is not the pinnacle of achievement in your sport, it shouldn’t be in The Olympics. I’m confident The World Games answers that question.
They have a state games in CO ea yr, different disciplines.
Billiard was Won :) of em.

bm
 
Plenty of sports don't have the Olympics as the pinnacle of their sport. I think that's actually the sign that a sport is healthy and financially viable.

It also makes sense to me that there would be a limited set of participants in the Olympics. This should be a showcase of the best each country has to offer, and there should be qualifiers or qualification criteria to whittle down the field BEFORE the Olympics.

For example, for the 100m sprint (probably the most popular event), only 56 runners participated. Given the number of runners in the world, this is obviously an incredibly select group of athletes, as it should be.
The Olympics is a bunch of attention hogs trying to outdo each other. Pool is a bunch of neurotics hoping they outdo each other. Funny too that the Olympics are games and pool wants to be a sport.
 
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