Squash legend Michelle Martin has welcomed the "long overdue" recommendation for the sport to be included in the 2028 Olympic Games.
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Three years after slamming the Olympics as a "mockery" following the IOC's decision to introduce breakdancing to the 2024 Paris Games in favour of squash, Martin is breathing a sigh of relief while remaining cautious.
"I'm not celebrating yet," Australia's three-time world champion told AAP on Tuesday following the LA28 Organising Committee's proposal that squash, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and baseball-softball be added to the Olympic program.
"Anyone who has ever played, or even seen, squash would say it's a quintessential Olympic sport. It should have been in the Olympics years ago.
"But we have continually been unfairly rejected, so this is long overdue."
Squash officials have indeed been lobbying hard, unsuccessfully, for decades to be included at the Olympics, despite even garnering support from global sport stars of other endeavours including tennis icon Roger Federer.
Before breakdancing beat it, squash has lost out to sports including skateboarding, sport climbing, BMX, surfing, golf and even wushu, which was trialled in Beijing in 2008.
A dispirited Martin was left gobsmacked when squash was overlooked in 2020 and hit out at the IOC.
"Oh my god, you just look at the whole thing and you just go 'where's the Olympics going?' I know some people say breakdancing's a sport but ... I don't understand," she said.
"The Olympics was all about a score, or it was a running race. There was a definitive answer and results.
"To bring in all these judging things and it just gets so corrupt and so out of control."
Breakdancing will be scrapped after next year's one-off inclusion and Martin - who also continues to lobby her local council in Sydney for squash courts to be rebuilt in Manly - is anxiously awaiting the outcome of the IOC Session in Mumbai next Monday.
Squash Australia is also sweating on the sport to be ratified and feature at the Olympics for the first time.
"This is one of the most significant announcements in the history of squash," said Squash Australia CEO Robert Donaghue.
"For most sports and athletes, the Olympic Games is the pinnacle, and for squash to be elevated to that status will be a momentous occasion."
Australian Associated Press
