It represents the pinnacle of many sportspeople's careers to represent their country in the Olympic Games, yet for many sportsmen and women they never get the opportunity, as their sport does not even feature among those taking place. For many years that has been the outlook facing the top snooker players of the world, but their opportunity may not be that far away after a bid was made for inclusion in 2020.
Snooker's world governing body has made it known that they have submitted a bid for the sport to be incorporated into the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
It seems to have been well received by the snooker fraternity, with England potting sensation Judd Trump among those who fancies a shot at the gold medal in the future. Trump at 25 would be one of those currently in the spotlight in the sport who could legitimately harbour hopes of success, and still be playing by then, should snooker get its wish. He has even suggested that to win the Olympic gold would be better (in his view) than winning the World Championships. In an interview with BBC Sport, he explained his thoughts by saying that: "What makes it so special is that it only happens once every four years."
Snooker's governing body believes that with four ranking events already taking place in the Far East and the sport already having a worldwide appeal, that there is no reason why it shouldn't feature alongside the other more traditional Olympic sports.
A Japanese audience would most likely be greatly interested if it did feature in their home nation's Olympics. From the perspective of viewing figures then they may well have a good point. The 2014 World Championship reached an amazing worldwide audience of in excess of 330 million people. It can also boast many stars from the Far East who regularly feature in the later stages of the major competitions and are high in the current rankings, such as Ding Junhui, Marco Fu and Xiao Guodong.
The Olympic Movement are constantly re-evaluating which sports should feature in their showcase event, to ensure that it reflects what the youth of the current time are participating in and what the public are interested in watching. They have brought tennis back into the fold in recent times and both golf and rugby union are to feature in Rio in 2016, although they have thus far opted against the sports of bowls and squash that do feature in the Commonwealth Games' programme.
There are many who have called for those sports to likewise be included in the Olympics, but as of yet their calls have been unanswered.
As for snooker's chances of success with their bid? There will be strong competition from the likes of baseball and squash to be included in 2020, and thereafter in future games who knows? Trump for one though is hoping that they will be first in the "cue" (sic)!
