The Inside Story - Wushu Wiggles Its Way Into Nanjing Youth Olympic Games

(ATR) Wushu seems set to shoehorn its way into a second straight Olympics on Chinese soil.

"Why?" is a good question. "How?" is a better one.

IOC president Jacques Rogge, the IOC communications department and International Wushu Federation president Zaiqing Yu all deliver mixed messages throughout this Inside Story.

Beijing Backstory

Wushu’s long and winding road to Nanjing 2014 actually begins at the 112th IOC Session in Moscow, where Beijing beat out four rival bids for hosting rights to the 2008 Olympics.

Given its roots in traditional Chinese martial arts, the sport would make an ideal addition to the upcoming Summer Games, leaders of the International Wushu Federation reasoned.

Just months after the July 13, 2001 host vote, IWUF applied for IOC recognition and was then accepted into the Olympic Movement at the 113th Session in Salt Lake City.

Because the Olympic Charter requires that new sports be approved a full seven years in advance of their Games debut, however, wushu never stood a chance as an official medal sport for Beijing.

IWUF officials instead lobbied for inclusion as a demonstration sport despite the IOC’s discontinuation of such sports with Barcelona 1992.

While in Nanjing for the opening of the 10th Chinese National Games in October 2005, IOC president Jacques Rogge revealed that wushu would indeed play a part in the Olympics but did not specify how.

Three largely quiet years later, 128 athletes from 43 countries came to China’s capital for the curiously titled Wushu Tournament Beijing 2008, a competition co-hosted by IWUF and BOCOG "as part of the program of the cultural Olympiad," according to an IOC spokeswoman.

A total of 15 events in taolu (solo) and sanshou (sparring) disciplines spanned Aug. 21 to 23 inside the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, where handball group play and quarterfinals had wrapped up just a day before.

The wushu competition included the look of the Beijing Games (without the Olympic Rings), participants stayed in the Olympic Village and results were posted on the official Info 2008 terminals installed in media areas.

Rogge, BOCOG chairman Liu Qi and Chinese Olympic Committee president Liu Peng even stopped by on an invitation from IWUF to award medals on Aug. 22, the third-to-last day of the Games.

In other words, the tournament was held "concurrently with and on the same stage as many other Olympic sports," as IWUF tells Around the Rings.

Asked at the time by Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun whether wushu’s special status "might actually open a very convenient example to the future" for other sports with Olympic aspirations, former IOC communications director Giselle Davies said: "This was discussed over a number of years with the Chinese host, and an agreement was reached to have a wushu tournament, so there was no issue of the athletes who were staying in the small quarter of the Village."

Davies also denied suggestions that the use of a pictogram and the look of the Games on its Info 2008 page made wushu "profoundly look like all the other Olympic sports".

"I believe it is part of the news section," she said during the joint IOC/BOCOG press briefing on the eve of the wushu tournament.

"This was agreed and there's no issue from the IOC side on any of these matters."

Despite rubbing many within the Olympic Movement the wrong way, such stunts four years ago in Beijing remain a source of pride among the current IWUF leadership.

"The success of this event greatly enhanced the publicity and recognition of wushu worldwide," the federation’s secretariat now tells ATR.

Onward to Nanjing

This time around, wushu is among eight sports shortlisted by the IOC Executive Board back in July 2011 for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics.

Though a decision won’t come until September 2013, campaigning is sure to heat up at SportAccord, where the EB will decide whether to accept a joint pitch from baseball and softball – among the obvious favorites given their Olympic past.

The other five bidders are karate, roller sports, wakeboard, squash and sport climbing. It's expected there will be room for only one to join the program, currently capped at 28 sports.

Said shortlist could be further trimmed next week in Quebec City, meaning sports will use the days prior to the May 23-25 EB meeting as a possible last chance to promote their candidacies in hopes to avoid an early exit from the race for 2020.

In comments made to ATR about wushu’s plan to better its chances, the IWUF secretariat revealed that "the IOC has agreed to organize a wushu tournament during the 2014 Nanjing YOG" but did not elaborate.

Asked whether wushu will be included in any way, an IOC spokeswoman told ATR: "Wushu will not be on the YOG sports program nor part of the [Culture and Education Program]. Nanjing is currently discussing the possibility of featuring wushu as part of a cultural program."

The difference between the two, ATR understands, is a matter of IOC involvement.

A cultural program is simply a broad range of events staged by the host city during a Games period.

However, the CEP, according to the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2014 Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire, is "a fundamental component" of the YOG on par with the competition itself.

"Please note that the IOC will work closely with the YOGOC in the years leading to the Youth Olympic Games to draw up the culture & education programs in accordance with IOC guidelines," the bid document adds.

Pressed to clarify in which of those two capacities the wushu event would be held in Nanjing, the IWUF secretariat instead quoted a letter the federation claims to have received from IOC president Rogge that reads: "It is with great pleasure that the IOC will support your request similarly to what was done at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. We agree to have a ‘Youth Wushu Tournament’ as part of the Culture and Education Program."

Exactly how "similarly" he meant remains unclear.

"We are not in a position to answer" whether there is a possibility wushu athletes could be accommodated in the Youth Olympic Village "as the details are not finalized," according to the IOC.

Urged to provide the complete text from Rogge’s letter as well as the date of receipt, IWUF told ATR: "The content in the last email is what we can provide for the moment."

Then asked specifically about Rogge’s remarks, the IOC spokeswoman told ATR: "I was not aware of this letter, and as far as we understand it, the content of the CEP program in Nanjing is yet to be finalized."

With the YOG opening ceremony slated for Aug. 16, the IOC and Nanjing 2014 have a little more than two years to do so.

From the Top

Rogge isn’t the only top IOC official indicating wushu’s inclusion at Nanjing 2014.

IWUF president Zaiqing Yu, also an IOC vice president from China, is already informing at least some of his 148 member federations about the sport’s success.

Brazilian Confederation of Kung Fu and Wushu president Marcus Vinicius F. Alves tells ATR he’s received word of the YOG event from Yu, and so too does United States of America Wushu Kungfu Federation president Anthony Goh.

"We have been informed by President Yu that wushu will be included in the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games," confirms Goh, himself an IWUF vice president.

"It was around March 30," he adds about the date he heard from Yu.

Rogge’s letter, if real, presumably predates the following missive penned by the IWUF president, referred to by Goh and made available in its entirety to ATR viaa separate source:

Dear all,

It is my great pleasure to share with all of you some very exciting news. We recently received a letter from IOC President, Dr. Jacques Rogge, pledging IOC’s support of a ‘Youth Wushu Tournament’ to be held concurrently with the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

The ‘Youth Wushu Tournament’ is a result of constant efforts and numerous consultations with IOC officials. The event will be similar to the hugely successful wushu tournament held during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

I have great pride in this and all of our accomplishments thus far. I want to thank all of you for your ongoing dedication and support in our efforts to have wushu included into the official events of the Olympic family. The ‘Youth Wushu Tournament’ is another positive step in the right direction for IWUF.

Sincerely,

Yu Zaiqing

President

Efforts made throughout the past two weeks to contact Yu for clarification of wushu’s status in Nanjing are so far unsuccessful, though he was copied on all emails exchanged between the IWUF secretariat and ATR.

Written by Matthew Grayson.

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