Pole dancers seek Olympic recognition

TOKYO | The 2010 Winter Olympics wound to an end yesterday, and for Japan’s Mai Sato, watching all those gold medals being handed out in Vancouver was a bittersweet experience.

Ms. Sato knows the demands of being the best. In her world, blisters are the rule, bruises a way of life. And the training five hours a day, five days a week.

Ms. Sato, the world champion in her sport, is as athletic, dedicated and competitive as the Olympians representing their nations at the games. And she thinks it’s high time her discipline, too, got some real recognition.

Still, pole dancing? In the Olympics?

Absolutely, say thousands of pole dancers and the rapidly growing number of international and national federations transforming what was once the exclusive property of strip clubs and cheap bars into a respectable and highly athletic event.

“I could definitely see pole dancing in the Olympics,” said Ms. Sato, who, a dancer since the age of 3, out-twirled a bevy of athletes from 11 countries at the second International Pole Dancing Fitness Championships in Tokyo two months ago. “I would love to win a gold medal.”

It’s admittedly a high bar.

Established sports such as squash and cricket have failed to make the Olympic cut, baseball and softball were recently given the ax, and the International Olympic Committee’s decision to end its support of nonofficial, demonstration sports after the Summer Games in 1992 has made gaining a foothold, the way judo and tae kwon do did, all that much harder.

Plus, pole dancing needs to first gain IOC recognition as a sport an uphill battle if ever there were one.

No matter, pole dance enthusiasts say.

Hong Kong-based Ania Przeplasko, founder of the International Pole Dancing Fitness Association, the sport’s fledgling supervisory body, thinks Olympic recognition is only a matter of time and would be a victory for underappreciated sports worldwide.

“There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport,” she said. “The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people doing pole fitness now. We’re shooting for 2012.”

That’s pretty ambitious.

It’s already too late for any new sports to be added to the London Games. But the IOC decision to end its support of exhibition sports after Barcelona has not completely closed the door on Olympic hopefuls looking for a way to showcase their skills Beijing did it with the martial art wushu.

Pole-dance advocates note that more unlikely sports have gotten the IOC’s nod.

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