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00:00 It's been a long, long journey.
00:02 Squash has probably been trying to get in the Olympic Games now for up to,
00:05 for almost 20 years.
00:06 And yeah, it's just huge, huge news for the sport.
00:10 We've had, I mean, we've had lots of experience over the last however many years.
00:13 And we've worked closely with World Squash in the last couple of bids.
00:18 So that bit was already a precedent.
00:21 And then with the Games being in the US for LA28,
00:24 obviously it was natural to them, you know,
00:26 for US Squash to be part of all of those conversations.
00:29 And it's been a fantastic collaboration.
00:33 There's been a lot going in in the background.
00:36 One thing that we were sort of told very early on was from LA28 point of view
00:41 was that they wanted everything to be much more behind sort of closed doors.
00:45 So no big kind of campaigns from any of the sports that were on the list.
00:50 And I think that has actually put us in good stead.
00:53 There's been a multitude of reasons over the years
00:56 that Squash hasn't been successful.
01:00 Some have been down to just bad timing.
01:01 Some have been down to just, you know, not being managed that well.
01:06 Some just being just plain unlucky.
01:08 And this time, this time the collaboration has been fantastic.
01:12 The work behind the scenes has been fantastic.
01:15 And it's just probably been a culmination really of all of those years
01:19 of putting ourselves, you know, in the best, putting the best foot forward.
01:24 And, you know, and LA28 really did believe in Squash
01:28 and put us on that proposed list to the IOC.
01:31 And then the IOC have obviously then ratified it and said yes to Squash.
01:36 It's always been one of those kind of holy grail moments for the sport.
01:39 And the main reason being is, well, there's a few main reasons.
01:42 One of them is the profile that the Olympic Games brings.
01:46 You know, it really does put sports,
01:48 especially kind of, you know, sports that are lower down on the sort of sporting ladder.
01:52 You know, it really does give them that recognition and that platform
01:56 to a wider sporting stage.
01:59 And then quite simply then in terms of funding and the way these sports are funded.
02:04 So, you know, the national federations and the regional federations
02:07 will get much more support locally, you know, from governments
02:11 and from different sort of funds.
02:12 And, you know, and the same will happen with World Squash.
02:14 You know, there will be a big influx of support, you know, financially
02:19 that will hopefully really, you know, help push the sport forward.
02:23 We've always been firm believers in how amazing our sport is,
02:27 you know, and the athletes that we have in the sport.
02:30 When you look at the statistics of, you know, an average heart rate being 170 beats a minute,
02:35 you know, an average match length of 50 minutes with, you know, at that sort of level.
02:40 The ball's in place 63% of the time, I think it is.
02:43 You know, the level of athleticism is just phenomenal.
02:48 And so for us to be able to display, you know, squash to a much wider audience is,
02:53 you know, I think squash really deserves to be there.
02:56 I was lucky enough to play in some Commonwealth Games, played in three of those.
03:00 And they, you know, the multi-sport games really are truly fantastic for any athlete,
03:06 you know, whatever sport you are.
03:07 You just get that sense of camaraderie between all of the different sports.
03:12 And the Olympics is the pinnacle of that, you know, so there'll be lots of sort of past,
03:17 you know, very famous players within the sport, the Nicole Davids of the world,
03:21 you know, Rami Ashour, Nick Matthew, you know, the list will go on and on of players
03:26 that will be a bit gutted that they never got the opportunity.
03:30 But they will also be the first in line to be, you know, very, very excited that the sport's finally made it.
03:37 You know, it's their legacy really over the last probably, you know, 10, 20, 25 years that's helped put us there.