History Part 2
Could Billiards really be considered a sport? The applications for recognition by the IOC and membership with the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) were submitted later on in 1992. In October 1993 the WCBS for the first time was invited as observers to the GAISF Congress & General Assembly in Lahti (FIN). However, the WCBS application failed to make it into the agenda of the AGM, and therefore the two WCBS representatives at this meeting, André Gagnaux and Jorgen Sandman, were confined to listen and learn. When in October of 1994 the GAISF AGM took place in Monte Carlo (MON), the WCBS application was on the agenda. Confident that the GAISF assembly really could do nothing but the obvious and accept the WCBS as a provisional member, Gagnaux and Sandman was in for a surprise though! Led by the President for Judo, who questioned if Billiards really could be considered a sport, a long discussion got started with many speakers voicing their opinion on the matter, some in favor and others against. A proposal was formulated that the GAISF first needed to define what really constitutes a sport, and finally the GAISF President, Dr. Un-Young Kim, was left with no other alternative then to apologize for the inconvenience and table the question for another year. Bearing in mind that the IOC already a few years before this new set-back had adopted a Swiss definition of Sports that by a far margin would resolve that Billiards in fact must be considered a sport, only further suggested that this decision by the GAISF - by now a part of the Olympic Movement - truly had to be questioned.
WCBS finally accepted by the GAISF. Meanwhile also the IOC had responded to the application for recognition by stating that the WCBS still was to new as an umbrella body for Billiards Sports, and that therefore a possible IOC recognition could not be expected for another few years. The IOC also recommended the WCBS to apply for membership with the GAISF - "whilst this is not a prerequisite, the IOC would see favorably on a WCBS membership with the GAISF." In October of 1995 the GAISF Congress & General Assembly was held in Seoul, Korea, and since now André Gagnaux had taken ill and was hospitalized, the WCBS delegation was lead by Jorgen Sandman, who was accompanied by Nigel Oldfield (GBR) and Massimino Del Prete (ITA). This time around, equipped with the experience following the two failures from in 1993 and 1994, the WCBS had better prepared its case to be presented. Mainly this was done in form of a glossy brochure titled "Right on Cue", which was distributed among all of the delegates and that in a professional way informed the meeting about the WCBS and Billiards Sports. The WCBS also hosted a cocktail reception for the around 500 attending officials, and certainly this initiative was welcomed by them all. If it was the brochure or the cocktail reception, or possibly the new IOC definition of sports that did the job, we have no way of knowing, but at the 1995 AGM in Seoul the WCBS finally became a provisional member of the GAISF. Any new organization entering the GAISF must first go through the stage of being a provisional member for two years, and then eventually be accepted as a full member with voting rights.
WCBS gains IOC Recognition and participation in the World Games. Again, if this in turn was what opened the door towards the IOC recognition, or if the WCBS simply by now, after four years of existence, had proved itself as the one and only umbrella organization for Billiards Sports in the eyes of the IOC, we do not know, but all of a sudden the progress went hand-in-hand. In July 1996 the IOC decided to grant the WCBS a provisional recognition for two years, and in September of the same year the WCBS became a member of the Association of Recognized IOC International Sports Federations (ARISF). An application for membership with the International World Games Association (IWGA) was also filed shortly thereafter, and at the 1997 IWGA AGM it was decided that the WCBS would become a member of this association as of January 1, 1998. The IWGA organizes every four years the World Games, and even though the WCBS now would become a member, this in itself would not automatically warrant participation at the World Games. In 1998, as new members of the IWGA, the WCBS did submit its application for participation in the World Games and also did visit with the organizing committee of the 2001 Akita World Games (JPN). On February 5, 1998, the IOC granted the WCBS its Outright Recognition, and by that it was now once and for all clear that Billiards Sports is to be treated as one sport among others. Later on in the same year the GAISF accepted the WCBS as a full member and the IWGA decided to include Billiards Sports into the program of the 2001 Akita World Games.
The dream of one man came true in less than 7 years! From the humble beginnings in January of 1992 to all the acceptance and recognition by the end of 1998, the accomplishment of the WCBS must be deemed very impressive. André Gagnaux, who very much must be credited for initiating that the WCBS at all was founded and also duly became its first President, had been carrying this vision already many years ahead of the historic first meeting in Bristol. He was not the tallest and also very seldom the loudest, but he certainly was a person that first and foremost would concentrate his efforts on possible solutions rather than just identifying problems, and also someone that would not take no for an answer. When he took ill in the second half of 1995 he, as much as his illness would allow, continued to pay attention to all of what was going on with the WCBS in its attempts to gain recognition. Unfortunately he never did recover and in February of 1996 he passed away. Bearing in mind the acceptance by the GAISF just a few months earlier though, Mr. Gagnaux was able to feel the satisfaction of knowing that his dream was now in progress. The work and the foresight of André Gagnaux will always be remembered and cherished by the WCBS, and through him the statement that "one man and one dream is all it takes" will always have a particular significance for Billiards Sports! Almost on the day two years following his demise, the IOC Outright Recognition was granted to the WCBS.
Meeting with the IOC President. 1998 was going to become an important year for the WCBS and Billiards Sports not only because of the IOC recognition, but also due to the participation in two major events - the first ever World Youth Games in Moscow (RUS) and the Bangkok Asian Games (THA). During a visit in Moscow 1997 by the successor to Mr. Gagnaux as President for the WCBS, Jorgen Sandman, he met with the President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Mr. Vitaly Smirnov. Whereas Jorgen had been invited by the Federation of Billiards Sports of Russia mainly in order to lobby for having the traditional Russian discipline of Pyramid included into the WCBS family, they also staged this meeting since Mr. Smirnov is a devoted Pyramid player. Having heard about the World Youth Games to take place in Moscow the year after, Jorgen proposed to Mr. Smirnov that Billiards Sports should be allowed as a demonstration sport. Mr. Smirnov immediately felt that this was a great idea and made the promise to organize with proper facility and a visit by the IOC dignitaries during the competition. The WCBS rapidly organized with equipment being brought to Moscow and also selected a large number of kids to participate, demonstrating Carom, Pool, Pyramid and Snooker. In order to better promote Billiards Sports also a number of professionals were invited to perform during this event, and among them Mike Massey (USA), the perhaps greatest Trick-Shot performer of all times! Mr. Smirnov kept his promise and the President of the IOC, H.E. Juan Antonio Samaranch, did arrive not only to have a look at what the WCBS had to offer, but also to play some himself and also spending a good hour meeting with a WCBS delegation led by Jorgen Sandman. At the press conference that followed the IOC President stated that "the IOC is anxious to include Billiards Sports in the Olympic Games as quickly as possible, but the WCBS will have to decide which discipline it would like to include."
10 medals at the Asian Games! In December of 1998 Billiards Sports was then included in the Asian Games for the first time ever. The Asian Games is what the importance is concerned perhaps second only to the Olympic Games, bearing in mind the amount of nations involved and the amount of athletes participating. Like the Olympic Games the Asian Games takes place only every 4 years and in 1998 the games were hosted in Bangkok - the capitol of Thailand. In the years just ahead of the 1998 Asian Games a few Thai Snooker players had become quite successful on the professional circuit of the WPBSA, and especially one - James Wattana. No doubt it was this success that led the Thai Olympic Committee to support the inclusion of Billiards Sports, and if added to this that quite a few Asian countries have celebrated a number of World Championship titles also in Carom and Pool, the support for this idea was to be found also elsewhere. Not less than 10 medals were awarded to Billiards Sports and the participation was a success in many ways - not only for the WCBS! The participation at the 2002 Asian Games in Pusan (KOR) was later on in a bit of jeopardy, mostly due to financial concerns that the Host City had, but in the end again Billiards Sports competed for 10 medals, and most likely the same will be the case in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha (QAT).
The WCBS fails inclusion into the Olympic Games with a narrow margin. It would appear that one reason to celebrate was followed by another during the years 1995-1998, and perhaps it would be easy to think that following the IOC recognition now the purpose and the work of the WCBS would be fulfilled? Instead it would be more appropriate to state that following all success now finally the WCBS had been given all the necessary tools it would need in order to possibly develop Billiards Sports even further. So for instance the IOC recognition made the WCBS eligible to apply for inclusion into the Olympic Program, and in fact the first WCBS application - for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games - was submitted in May of 1997, almost a year before the IOC outright recognition! The Olympic charter stipulates though, that an application must be filed 7 years ahead of the particular games in which a new sport would like to appear, and also before the final selection of host city for those games will be made, and the WCBS had already achieved a provisional recognition. Among 15 other sports that all of them had applied for inclusion, the Greek Olympic Committee decided to scrutinize five, among them Billiards Sports. Finally they selected two sports out of the five, with Billiards Sports ending up as their third choice, and proposed to the IOC the inclusion of the two. In December 2000, the IOC decided that no further sports are to be introduced in the 2004 Olympic Games, mainly due to the fact that by then it was known that the preparations for the Athens Games was far behind schedule and the IOC wanted the Host City to concentrate all its efforts on catching up rather than having even more sports added.
