Could pétanque be included in the 2024 Olympic Games program? That is, in any case, what Claude Azéma, the president of the World Confederation of Boules Sports (CMSB), is asking if Paris’s candidacy is accepted.
Its practitioners have been dreaming of this for a long time. But there is still a certain difference between dreams and reality, and the Olympics are not a village festival!
According to official statistics, 9,000 licensed players officially practice pétanque in the Alpes-Maritimes and more than 300,000 in France.
Pétanque, a sport of skill and concentration, why not make it an Olympic sport?
Its practitioners wish for it and believe in it. A petition is circulating on social networks to this effect. All the more so because it is said that, starting in 2020, cities will be able to decide for themselves which new disciplines they wish to invite.
The information is not entirely accurate, far from it: Recommendation 10 of the IOC’s Agenda 2020 suggests quite the opposite: 2. The IOC Session will decide on the inclusion of any sport (IF) into the program 3. The IOC will authorize the OCOGs to submit a proposal for the inclusion of one or more additional events in the Olympic program for the concerned Olympic Games edition. Events are not to be confused with sports disciplines!
A sport or discipline is included in the Olympic program if the IOC decides it is widely practiced worldwide.
Indeed, a discipline must be practiced by men in at least fifty countries and on three continents, and by women in at least thirty-five countries across three continents.
Then, to become or remain Olympic, each sport (or rather, the federation that represents it) is reviewed by the IOC’s Olympic program commission.*
To date, the Summer Olympics program includes 28 sports disciplines. Therefore, a new discipline can only replace another.
Are we sure that pétanque meets the required conditions?
Given the context and foreseeable situations, the chances seem slim, if not nonexistent.
However, nothing serious… Enthusiasts can always continue to practice their sport to the sound of cicadas with a good glass of pastis in hand!
