‘Mahjong will never be an Olympic Sports’

By Martin Rep, Mahjong News

Mrs. Erica Terpstra

NIJMEGEN, August 25, 2008 - ‘Definitely not.’ When, after the first Open European Mahjong Championship 2005 at Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Dutch member of the International Olympic Committee Mrs. Erica Terpstra, was asked about the chances of mahjong to be ever an Olympic sports, she was quite clear. ‘Even chess is not an Olympic sports, and chess is played in many countries.’

On the Olympic calendar, no mind sport are found at all. Not even popular games as chess or bridges can be played during the Olympiad. So, if mahjong is a mind sport at all, it does not stand a chance.

According to Wikipedia, there are 35 Olympic sports, 53 disciplines and over 400 events. Most of these are featured on the Summer Olympics (28, while on the Winter Olympics there are 7 sports).

Sports come and go. New sports include snowboarding, BMX and beach volleyball. The growth of the Olympics also means that some less popular (modern pentathlon) or expensive (white water canoeing) sports may lose their place on the Olympic programme. The IOC has decided to discontinue well-known and widely exercised sports as baseball and softball from 2012. However, sports may return as well. Cricket and rugby have been expelled, but, as a result of their revival, it may be possible that they will return one day to the Olympic Games.

Demonstration sports

Until 1992, the Olympics also often featured demonstration sports. The objective was for these sports to reach a larger audience; the winners of these events were not official Olympic champions. These sports were sometimes sports popular only in the host nation, but internationally known sports have also been demonstrated. Some demonstration sports eventually were included as full-medal events.

To be admitted to the Games, a sport needs an association or governing body of some kind to get in. Cow chip hurling, therefore, popular though it may be in the upper Midwest of the USA, probably won't make it. Kaatsen, a sport that is extremely popular in the Dutch province of Friesland and which resembles a bit like cricket, does not stand a chance as well.

A sport must also be popular in many countries--75 of them for men's summer sports, 40 for women's summer sports, and 25 for winter sports.

Impossible

This all means that it is virtually impossible for mahjong to become ever an Olympic sport. Even though mahjong nowadays has a number of governing bodies, it will be hard to prove that it is popular in 75 countries. Within the international mahjong organizations, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark may be important members, but outside the mahjong world, in Europe not many people have even heard of mahjong.

Who wants to play mahjong, has a world to win. But not the Olympic world.