Disappointed with the Olympic snub at the expense of golf, Sourav Ghosal, Joshna Chinappa hope their sport makes it to 2024 Games
India's squash star Saurav Ghosal often gets emotional when the talk revolves around Olympics.
When will squash be a part of the biggest show on earth? That is the question on everyone's mind when Olympics nears. And, the squash players don't have an answer to it. So, it wasn't surprising to see the chief executive of Professional Squash Association Alex Gough express his disappointment on Wednesday over the growing number of leading golfers withdrawing from the Rio Olympics due to health concerns over Zika virus threat.
On Thursday during a press meet of Senior National Squash Championships at the Otters Club here, Ghosal couldn't hold himself when asked about the same.
"For every squash player in the world, let alone winning a medal, just being part of the Olympics would be a massive achievement for them. Everyone holds true to that word. It is definitely very frustrating to see or read articles every other day that the world No. 1, the world No. 2 in golf have been pulling out. "And then you have someone like Rory McIlroy coming out and saying it does not really matter. It's very frustrating for us at every level. It's frustrating for the sport. But at the end of the day, it's the International Olympic Committee which has to look at it and see what exactly it wants," the 29-year-old squash player said.
Explaining a squash player's desperation just to be a part of Olympics, Ghosal said: "For squash it would be the biggest thing. You have a world champion who is willing to give up all her seven or eight world medals for that one single Olympics medal. That shows you what an Olympic medal means to us. Unfortunately, nothing much is going to change for the 2016 Olympics and from what we know, squash is out of the running for the 2020 Tokyo Games. It is terribly sad for us."
Squash won't be a part of the Tokyo Olympics too as it failed make the final list of five with golf picked to feature at the Games. Veteran squash player Joshna Chinappa, who broke into top-10 rankings recently, too seemed disappointed. "As an athlete, we all aspire to play for India and win medals for the country. I personally think that squash is such a deserving sport to be a part of the Olympics. As of now, it is not there but at the same time it does not make me a lesser athlete or my sport lesser than any other sport.
"We have the Commonwealth Games, we have the Asian Games, we have our World Championships, so we look forward to them. We go back to the grind. We work as hard as any other top athlete in the world and hopefully the International Olympic Committee can see in time that squash deserves to be part of the Olympic programme," she added.
Chinappa is hoping that squash makes it in 2024 Olympic Games. "For 2024, there is an outside chance, but it remains to be seen how the sport is promoted, at what level it is taken up internationally and all those factors are going to play a huge part. "In the meantime we are not sweating about it. Personally for me, I might have missed my chance to play in the Olympics. At some point, I do feel that we should be there and it would be great to represent India and aspire for a medal. That would be the highlight of anyone's career. But as of now, I am just trying to do the best I can with what I can achieve," she added.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "SQUASH")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}