Wider acceptance

Squash players and associations have lobbied for many years for the sport to be accepted into the Olympic Games, with no success to date. Squash narrowly missed being instated for the 2012 London Games. It is again up for consideration for the 2016 Summer Games along with baseball, softball, rugby sevens, karate, golf, and roller sports. Up to two sports will be added to the Olympic programme which will be decided at the IOC assembly in October 2009. Currently there is a 28-sport ceiling and 26 sports are guaranteed to be included in the 2016 Summer Games. Squash has kicked off their bid at the 2008 Hi-Tec World Championships with Jahangir Khan, President of the World Squash Federation, leading the way.

Squash is played throughout the world, and is similar to tennis in skills and fitness requirements, but the principal limitation has always been the difficulty in observing the sport as a spectator, either in person or on television. The ball travels so quickly that television audiences are hard-pressed to follow the action, even though some tournaments have attempted to remedy the problem by using a specially coated ball for increased visibility. To maximize the viewing audience at tournaments, promoters often use an all-glass court that is designed to permit spectators to be seated around all four walls but is specially tinted so as not to distract the players. Because of these viewer restrictions, professional squash players earn vastly less than their counterparts in the tennis world.