Squash fights back against Olympic snub

Squash players around the world are mad as heck and they’re not going to take this anymore.

Their sport was shortlisted for addition to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last week but lost out to baseball, softball, surfing, skateboarding, karate and sports climbing.

It wasn’t the first time squash has been passed over for the Games.

“We find this difficult to understand,” said N Ramachandran, president of the World Squash Federation.

That’s an understatement compared with Ramachandran’s initial reaction to the announcement on Sept. 28, when he claimed to be “utterly devastated” and spoke of squash players around the world as “heartbroken.”

The decision was made by Tokyo officials, who forwarded their recommendation to the International Olympic Committee for approval.

On Tuesday, Squash Federation officials requested an explanation from the IOC about the process by which the sport was bypassed once again.

“In the meantime, we will continue to grow the sport that, contrary to the impression given by the 2020 decision-makers, is flourishing on all continents,” Ramachandran said.