'Ray of light' for Matthew in squash's Olympic bid

NickMatthew - Cropped

Leading squash player Nick Matthew says there is a "ray of light" in the sport's bid to be included in the Olympic Games in time for Tokyo 2020.

The sport has been constantly overlooked for an Olympic berth - having seen wrestling reinstated during an International Olympic Committee (IOC) ballot in 2013.

However, Thomas Bach succeeded Jacques Rogge as IOC president later that year and has offered hope with his desire to move from a sport-based to an event-based programme.

Bach revealed the proposed changes in November 2014, with former world number one Matthew - a two-time singles gold medal winner at the Commonwealth Games - telling Perform: "There's definitely a ray of light with the new president.

"Compared to before when it seemed like the decisions had already been finalised, Thomas Bach seems very open to new sports coming in and there's talk of it being more about the number of competitors or events rather than the number of sports.

"There's obviously some sports that seemingly have hundreds of events and we might be able to lose a few of them without taking away from the overall sport.

"The door's ajar and we need to find a way to push it open."

Matthew, who will compete at the British Open in Hull next month, has been a key figure in the movement to get squash into the Olympics.

Of the change in president, the 34-year-old added: "It's reinvigorated everyone involved in the sport. I think everyone was quite flat after the bidding process closed for 2020.

"Everyone felt squash ticked all the IOC's boxes for criteria and we felt a little bit hard done by after the promises to put in a new sport.

"Having wrestling taken out and put back in didn't really live up the criteria. It's clear squash ticks all the boxes, it would be our pinnacle and it's truly global.

"We're going to push until the bitter end."

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