Well, you won’t find bowls at the Olympics in Rio 2016, but it might make an appearance at Tokyo 2020. Bowls is hoping to be added to the International Olympic Committee sports later this year and could be played at future Summer Olympics.
The IOC revised the minimum number of member nations from 75 to 50, and after a review in December 2015 it has been confirmed that bowls now meets this criteria.
Apart from the obvious benefit of being able to take bowls to the Olympics, membership of the IOC will give World Bolws access to funding and support that is simply not available to non-members.
The IOC are waiting on the completion of a 40-page questionnaire, along with a variety of related document – an IOC Recognition Request File – which needs to be filed by 31 August 2016. The IOC Executive Board will then consider this application at a meeting in December 2016.
World Bowls are at pains to stress that the recognition of bowls by the IOC is only the very first step in the process of having bowls at the Olympics, but it does give the sport a platform to lobby for inclusion on the Olympic Games Sports Programme.
Bowlaway are looking forward to getting behind Team GB for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, and look forward to Bowls at the Olympics in the future.
