For 2032 continuous minutes, the Daisy Hill Squash and Racquet Club had their courts full of action to celebrate World Squash Day and make a statement that theirs should be Brisbane’s sport of choice for the 2032 Olympics.
It amounted to almost 34 hours of non-stop live-streamed squash involving 87 entries earlier this month.
“It started at 6am on Friday morning and went continuous and finished at 3.52pm on Saturday afternoon,” Bradley Hindle said.
Mr Hindle, a three-time Commonwealth Games squash athlete, helped restore the Daisy Hill club in 2018.
The initiative, which led into the Logan City Doubles Open, was their way of putting the sport in the sight of Olympic organisers ahead of Brisbane 2032.
“Squash is probably going to be in the LA [Los Angeles] Olympics before, so we’re just raising awareness for the 2032 Olympics,” he said.
“What we did was put booking sheets down, donated the squash court sites, and people could play squash as long as they wanted, as long as it was continuous squash for 2032 minutes.”
Minister Mick de Brenni closed out the 2032 minutes by getting into the squash court.
“Everyone remembers Australia taking out the 2018 Commonwealth men’s doubles, so we have the opportunity to replicate that in just 11 years’ time,” he said.
Although squash is a Commonwealth Games sport, it could struggle to get the nod for the Olympics, according to Dr Ian Jobling, who worked on the Brisbane Olympics bid in 1992 and Melbourne’s in 1996.
“I know it [squash] has been raised, it’s got everything going for it, it’s a great game in terms of persons who are playing it, but it’s got minimal number of spectators, and in the confines of a court it is difficult to televise,” he said.
Television appeal is crucial today. It means sponsorship, audiences, and money for Olympic organisers. Without this, sports will struggle to make it to the Olympic level, he said.
“That really shouldn’t be a point, but it is a point because the IOC has to be able to make money these days because it’s contributing so much money to Brisbane 2032,” Dr Jobling said.
“Basically, it needs to be a spectator sport in terms of television.”
