Bowling at the Summer Olympics | |
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IOC Code | BWL |
Governing body | IBF |
Events | 2 (men: 1; women: 1; mixed: 0) |
Summer Olympics | |
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Bowling was featured in the Summer Olympic Games demonstration programme in 1988 at Seoul's Royal Bowling Center. A total of 20 nations competed in the men's and women's tournament. No bowling professionals competed in the demonstration events.
The first multi-sport event in which bowling was contested as an official sport was the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand. Bowling has been an official sport at every quadrennial World Games from the first edition in 1981 in the United States, including the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland. [1] The sport was removed from the Asian Games program for the 1982 Games in Delhi, India, but returned four years later in the 1986 Games in Seoul, South Korea. The public interest in this edition of the Asian Games was resounding. As a result the bowling industry lobbied long and hard for bowling to be recognized as a potential Olympic sport and a demonstration sport for future Games, but the outcome was not successful. A negative factor is that bowling lacks inexpensive or easy access for youth in the underdeveloped world to acquire skill and proficiency. [2] However, after its first demonstration appearance at the Americas-exclusive 1983 Pan American Games, [3] bowling appeared as an official sport with full medal status at the 1991 Pan American Games on August 2, 1991, in Havana, Cuba. The medal-level competition has been held at every Pan American Games since then, including the 2019 Games held in Lima, Peru.
On 22 June 2015, it was announced that bowling made the cut from the 28 sports to the last eight to become a new sport for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The shortlist of these sports for consideration was based on applications from 26 international sport federations, many of which have applied for inclusion in previous Olympic tournaments. [4] However, in September 2015, it was announced that bowling, together with wushu and squash, were left out for 2020. The 2020 Olympic Committee wanted sports that appealed to youth and that did not require building new facilities to reduce cost. [5]
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad and officially branded as Seoul 1988, were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represented at the games by a total of 8,391 athletes. 237 events were held and 27,221 volunteers helped to prepare the Olympics.
Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll of the ball, or failing that, on the second roll. While most people approach modern ten-pin bowling as a simple recreational pastime, those who bowl competitively, especially at the highest levels, consider it a demanding sport requiring precision and skill.
Olympic sports are sports that are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2020 Summer Olympics included 33 sports; the 2022 Winter Olympics included seven sports. Each Olympic sport is represented at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by an international governing body called an International Federation (IF).
A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games, but may also occur at other sporting events.
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The Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) is an international multi-sport event organized by the Commonwealth Games Federation. The games were held in the years, mid-way between when the Commonwealth Games are held, until 2008. They continued to be held every four years, but in the year after the Commonwealth Games are held, from 2011 to 2015. Since 2017, they've been held in the year before the Commonwealth Games are held. The first edition was held in Edinburgh, Scotland from 10–14 August 2000. The age limitation of the athletes is from 14 to 18.
Basketball at the Summer Olympics has been a sport for men consistently since 1936. Prior to its inclusion as a medal sport, basketball was held as an unofficial demonstration event in 1904 and 1924. Women's basketball made its debut in the Summer Olympics in 1976. FIBA organizes both the men's and women's FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments and the Summer Olympics basketball tournaments, which are sanctioned by the IOC.
Rafael "Paeng" Villareal Nepomuceno is a Filipino bowler and coach who is a six time World bowling champion. He is a World Bowling Hall of Famer and is the first and only bowling athlete to be awarded with the prestigious IOC President's Trophy. He was also named International Bowling Athlete of the Millennium by the FIQ in 1999 and was inducted in the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.
Taekwondo made its first appearance at the Olympics as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. The opening ceremony featured a mass demonstration of taekwondo, with hundreds of adults and children performing moves in unison. Taekwondo was again a demonstration sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Taekwondo became a full medal sport at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and has been a sport in the Olympic games since then.
Softball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing took place over a ten-day period starting August 12 and culminating in the medal finals on August 21. All games were played at the Fengtai Softball Field. Olympic softball is a women only competition, with men competing in the similar sport of baseball.
Olivia "Bong" Coo is a Filipino sports administrator and retired professional bowler. She is regarded as the most decorated Filipino athlete. As a member of the Philippine national team, she has amassed a total of 78 medals won in regional and world competitions, 37 of which were gold medals. She is a 4-time world champion and a World Bowling Hall of Fame and Philippine Sports Hall of Fame member.
The 2008 Beijing Wushu Tournament was a wushu competition which was held from August 21 to 24, 2008 at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Beijing, China. The tournament was organised by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), and the Chinese Wushu Association (CWA), and was held in tandem with the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Bowling at the 1988 Summer Olympics was an exhibition sport for the first, and so far only time. 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.
The Pan American Games sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer Olympic Games. In addition, traditional and popular sports throughout the Americas which are not contested at the Olympic Games are also contested such as bowling and baseball. As of 2015, the Pan American Games included 36 sports with 51 disciplines and 364 events. The number and kinds of events may change slightly from one Pan American Games to another.
The Philippine Bowling Congress Inc. or more popularly known as Philippine Bowling Congress and PBC was the governing body for tenpin bowling in the Philippines from 1977 to 2016. The Philippine Bowling Federation Inc.PBF replaced it as the appointed member of the International Bowling Federation (IBF), Asian Bowling Federation (ABF), and Philippine Olympic Committee (POC). in 2016.
Arianne Cerdeña is a Filipino ten-pin bowling player. She is best known for winning the first gold medal for the Philippines in the Summer Olympics; albeit in a demonstration event hence the medal won was not counted in the official medal tally. She won the medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. She is elected to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame in March 2021.
Carol Gianotti of Perth is a female Australian ten-pin bowler. She was inducted into the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Hall of Fame in 2020, the Tenpin Bowling Australia Hall of Fame in 2016 and the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Hall of Fame in 2011. She won 16 professional women's bowling titles between 1989 and 2000. She inspired other Australians and women abroad to join the professional tour.
Cara Honeychurch of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is a female world champion tenpin bowler. She won the AMF Bowling World Cup in 1996 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and voted Bowler of the Year by the World Bowling Writers the same year. She was inducted to the World Bowling Writers' International Hall of Fame in 1998.
In 1951 the Pan American Games, a quadrennial multiple sports competition for Western Hemisphere countries, was inaugurated. Tenpin bowling was added to the official program in 1991. In 1983 it was contested as a demonstration sport.