Petition for Olympic Billiards

victorl

Where'd my stroke go?
Silver Member
My concern, is their pitch' for their game, 8 ball on a nine footer with 2 1/4 balls and Snooker cut pockets. Or is their motivation for Real Snooker or Real 10 Ball or is it self serving? I've got no dog in this hunt, but the email sent to me had the ''feel'' of 8 ball. If that's their direction, I'm out.

Chinese 8-ball isn't part of the pitch, as it's a new game and only played in China.
I believe they are pushing for American pool, snooker and 3 cushion billiards to be included.
 

victorl

Where'd my stroke go?
Silver Member
Are you sure about this? If so, they have enough. It looks to me like they need 10,000 signatures. According to the website right now they already have 7,939 but it appears they are looking for 2,061 more.

Also, what's the current status? If I read this correctly, this is to petition the JOC to take cue sports into consideration. Assuming they do, is it "in" or does it then have to be approved by the IOC?

It looks like the signature target increases automatically as each goal is reached, so I think I was wrong about the 7500 being their final goal.

Cue sports is already recognized by the JOC as an official candidate sport and this petition is part of the submission and selection process.
Not sure about how the IOC figures into the selection process though.
 

Sandman

Sandcastle Room Owner
Silver Member
Signed

Signed. Let's see what happens. I hope for the best for the sport in all aspects. :)
 

Island Drive

Otto/Dads College Roommate/Cleveland Browns
Silver Member
Chinese 8-ball isn't part of the pitch, as it's a new game and only played in China.
I believe they are pushing for American pool, snooker and 3 cushion billiards to be included.

I hope your right.

:thumbup2:..........
 

DogsPlayingPool

"What's in your wallet?"
Silver Member
It looks like the signature target increases automatically as each goal is reached, so I think I was wrong about the 7500 being their final goal.

Cue sports is already recognized by the JOC as an official candidate sport and this petition is part of the submission and selection process.
Not sure about how the IOC figures into the selection process though.

I'm not sure either. My understanding is host committees are allowed to choose one or two exhibition sports but I'm not sure if they provide a list to the IOC who then approves it or tells them which on the list are acceptable. I guess it's also possible the IOC isn't involved in approving the choice so long as it's on the recognized list of Olympic sports, which this is.
 

abs

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
As a matter of principal, I don't think pool should be in the Olympics. Despite how much I would love for the game to have that kind of visibility; it's just not an athletic sport by any measure.

That being said, I signed the petition for whatever it will be worth. The big O does include "disciplines". So if the equestrian "disciplines" can be a part of the Olympics (shouldn't the horses get the medals, not the riders?), and if golf can as well, then what the hey.
 

Island Drive

Otto/Dads College Roommate/Cleveland Browns
Silver Member
As a matter of principal, I don't think pool should be in the Olympics. Despite how much I would love for the game to have that kind of visibility; it's just not an athletic sport by any measure.

That being said, I signed the petition for whatever it will be worth. The big O does include "disciplines". So if the equestrian "disciplines" can be a part of the Olympics (shouldn't the horses get the medals, not the riders?), and if golf can as well, then what the hey.

Wrong....Mika could never of won the US Open from the losers bracket first round loss....w/o being in Perfect physical condition, like Tiger Woods.
 

abs

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Wrong....Mika could never of won the US Open from the losers bracket first round loss....w/o being in Perfect physical condition, like Tiger Woods.

I get what you are saying, but have to disagree with how it plays out in reality.

First, you are citing one of a few exceptions to make an point for the majority. Mika is in better than average shape, though not "perfect" shape at all. If that's perfect shape, then I'm surrounded by gods. But seriously, he's only one of a few players that are in decent shape. The majority of winning pro players are not in shape at all. Second, being in shape is not the same as being an athlete.

Being out of shape can hurt, being in shape can help, but being in shape is not a necessity to win at pool even over a long haul. Plenty of mediocre (or worse) shape players play long tournaments and survive to finish well. There are world-class players that have never been in shape their entire lives. For some, the closest they have come to working out is lifting a cue stick (or lifting a doughnut from a napkin to their mouth). Kind of like this... Great Athletes

The game is about skill/knowledge and mental stamina... And being physically capable of executing (which being in shape is certainly part of). But the kind of physical stamina needed to play pool is not the same as needed to run 10 miles. You can be in average physical shape and still rock the house over a multi-day tournament.

But I'll admit, I just made this reply so I could post that video link :)
 

Celtic

AZB's own 8-ball jihadist
Silver Member
What are we going to get them to play in the Olympics?

8 ball on a 7 foot Valley?
8 ball on a 7 foot Diamond?
8 ball on a 9 foot Diamond?
9-ball on a 9-foot Diamond?
10-ball on a 9-foot Gold Crown?
8 ball on a 10 foot Diamond?
10 ball on a 10 foot Diamond?
8 ball on a 9-foot Gold Crown?
9-ball on a 9 foot Gold Crown?
10-ball on a 9-foot Gold Crown?
8 ball on a Chinese 8-ball table?
I am going to assume 1-pocket, straight pool, and banks are not part of this discussion at all.

What balls are we going to use? Cyclop? SAP? Brunswick Cents? Are we going to change back and forth every Olympics to whatever the flavor of the week is or are we going to pick the best and stick with them?

How are we going to properly pick the competitors from each country? There are no proper professional tours in half of the world, do you tell people they need points from events like the US Open and hope those players trying to get points to make the US Team get paid if they win? We have few people who could even run qualifiers for something like this and how do you run them? Do you take an entry fee and just put the money into the trip to pay for housing and travel? Who is allowed to play in these qualifying events? Everyone who wants a chance to go to the Olympics, we do not have a proper ranking system to say "you are not good enough to try to get to the Olympics"? There might be a lot of people who would try to do this and it may take many tiers of qualifiers to let everyone take a shot. All pros would need to player through all the stages? Or do you give a guy like SVB a bye to a deeper event? Based on what? If you do it for him what about Johnny Archer, what about Earl? What about Adam Smith? Where is the line where you say "you need to start at the bottom"?

ATM we in pool have pure turmoil. We have various games being played on all sorts of different equipment with different rules and different equipment and it is causing all sorts of arguments and issues. You do "NOT" go into the Olympics like that. We have a huge amount of work figuring out where we want this game to be, what games need to be promoted and have a chance to become stable. The new kid on the block Chinese 8-ball just got probably the most star studded field of talent pool has ever seen in the last event. Are we going to ignore that and throw 9-ball on a Diamond into the Olympics? A game that seems to be dying as we speak, at least to the overriding popularity of 10-ball as the rotation game of choice.

If we get the Olympics to put "pool" in as a sport we need to have all of this WELL established long before it goes forward. There will be no changing the game every couple of Olympics every 8 or 12 years. What we put in there has to be the "future" of the game, and I do not think ANYONE here knows what that is atm. I am not even sure we have one. But the one sure thing is that if we throw in a game and it fails to really catch on, and it's popularity wanes in the pool world as it is replaced by something different, the Olympics will just drop pool as a failed experiment and there will not be any coming back from that in the lifetime of the youngest member here.

We are absolutely NOT ready for this at all.
 

Island Drive

Otto/Dads College Roommate/Cleveland Browns
Silver Member
I get what you are saying, but have to disagree with how it plays out in reality.

First, you are citing one of a few exceptions to make an point for the majority. Mika is in better than average shape, though not "perfect" shape at all. If that's perfect shape, then I'm surrounded by gods. But seriously, he's only one of a few players that are in decent shape. The majority of winning pro players are not in shape at all. Second, being in shape is not the same as being an athlete.

Being out of shape can hurt, being in shape can help, but being in shape is not a necessity to win at pool even over a long haul. Plenty of mediocre (or worse) shape players play long tournaments and survive to finish well. There are world-class players that have never been in shape their entire lives. For some, the closest they have come to working out is lifting a cue stick (or lifting a doughnut from a napkin to their mouth). Kind of like this... Great Athletes

The game is about skill/knowledge and mental stamina... And being physically capable of executing (which being in shape is certainly part of). But the kind of physical stamina needed to play pool is not the same as needed to run 10 miles. You can be in average physical shape and still rock the house over a multi-day tournament.

But I'll admit, I just made this reply so I could post that video link :)

Wrong.......especially the long haul. Niels, Shane are they also the exception?
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
What are we going to get them to play in the Olympics?
..
I think it will almost certainly be the format that has been used in the World Games several times already. I see no reason why that wouldn't work in the Summer Olympic Games.
 

Colin Colenso

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Outside of the UK, where the snooker would get decent coverage, does anyone think the pool games would get more than 5 minutes coverage? They'd be cutting to fluff pieces about the local mountains during the pool finals.
 
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DogsPlayingPool

"What's in your wallet?"
Silver Member
Outside of the UK, where the snooker would get decent coverage, does anyone think the pool games would get more than 5 minutes coverage? They'd be cutting to fluff pieces about the local mountains during the pool finals.

Not sure how it is in Australia, but here the Olympic coverage is extensive. The last one on NBC was on 3 or 4 cable channels besides the NBC network. There was NBC sports, MSNBC, CNBC and I forget all who else. We got plenty of ping pong and badminton to go along with track and field and swimming.
 
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