Why Bowling Should Be An Olympic Sport

source: Bowlingdigital.com

There are numerous articles over the past decade on the push to make bowling an Olympic sport. In 2015, bowling was 1 of 26 venues to be considered for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. By 2016, the list had been narrowed to 5, but ultimately did not make the final cut.

Bowling was featured as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea. From Wikipedia, In all, a total 24 Ten-pin bowling bowlers, 12 male and 12 female, from 21 nations competed in the exhibition, which was held on September 18 at the Seoul's Royal Bowling Center.

Forward 30 years later. The website, bowlingdigital.com proves there's a lot more than 21 countries that are bowling. "World Bowling provides governance to international bowling and is made up of 115 member federations within three geographical zones." The 3 zones: Europe, America, Asia.

In November 2017, the 53rd QubicaAMF World Cup took place in Hermosillo, Mexico. There were 72 men and 57 women from 75 countries registered as participants.

Currently, the closest event to resemble bowling's equivalent to the Olympics (every 4 years), is the World Games. The most recent games took place in Wroclaw, Poland in July 2017.

To give you a flavor of international bowling, watch at least 20 minutes of the 15th Brunswick Euro Challenge in Unterföhring (suburban Munich), Germany. Sweden's Jenny Wegner defeated USA's Anthony Simonsen (women have an 8 pin handicap) in the championship match.

Danielle McEwan, Bernice Lim, Sin Li Jane, New Hui Fen, Daphne Tan, Dom Barrett, Stu Williams, Richie Teece, Sean Rash and Darren Tang also bowled this tournament.