Badminton’s Quota Unchanged for Athens Olympics
Badminton’s quota of 172 players at the Olympic Games will remain unchanged for Athens 2004, despite IBF’s request to increase the number of players back to 192 – the number permitted in Atlanta in 1996.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), under new president Jacques Rogge, faces a mammoth task in trying to curb the increase in participants at the summer Olympic Games, which they want to restrict to a maximum of 10,000 athletes across the 28 sports.
The IOC’s Executive Board met to determine the programme for Athens 2004 in Lausanne last week, and Sports Director Gilbert Felli explained: ‘This is the first time for years that we have not increased the number of events for an Olympics. For the first time we are trying to apply the rules.’
Indeed, although IBF officials are disappointed with the IOC’s decision not to increase the number of badminton players at the 2004 Games, badminton has fared rather better than some sports which have been forced to reduce the numbers of their athletes. Boxing has been told it must cut the number of weights from 12 to 11, resulting in 26 fewer boxers than in previous years.
Fencing has been told it can introduce an extra women’s event, but must reduce elsewhere to keep the number of participants the same.
Badminton remains one of the only Olympic sports to have a mixed competition – both table tennis and tennis requested that a mixed doubles discipline be introduced for their respective events in Athens, but the IOC turned them down.
IBF’s Director of Events, Vanessa Freeman, said: ‘Although we fully understand the difficulties the IOC face in trying to contain the growth of the Olympic Games, it is very disappointing that our quota has not been reinstated to 192 players for Athens.
‘It is difficult for to us to showcase our sport and ensure a varied spread of participating countries with only 172 players able to attend.’
For information, please contact:
International Badminton Federation
Karen McCall
Marketing & Press Officer
Tel: +44 1242 23 49 04
Fax: +44 1242 22 10 30
E mail: karenm@intbadfed.org