After delving into sports hoping to one day to be part of the Summer Olympics for last week’s column, curiosity had me looking at the roster of sports for the winter version of the Games.
The list of current Winter Olympic sports is shorter than its warm weather counterpart. That has always created at least the thinking among some that there is an opening for more winter sports to become Olympic events - the reasoning that there is some desire to create a greater balance between the two versions.
Whether that desire is real, or not, the chance to broaden the roster of winter events is rather limited.
We may see basketball as a winter sport, in the sense it is played during our winter season that is not how the Olympic Committee sees things.
It is rather obvious winter sports must have elements of snow and ice in order to be considered a Winter Olympics sport.
Fair enough, they want to keep the lines between the Summer and Winter versions easy to understand. If they were to transfer basketball, then why not volleyball? Or, handball? Or, badminton? Where would the line be once the doors opened?
So when looking at what sports might fit the Winter Olympics you have to deal with the criteria of snow and ice as integral parts of the sport as step one to admission.
The parametre of snow and ice dramatically limits the list of potential sports.
There simply are not dozens of winter sports sitting in the wings that are waiting for Olympic recognition.
On the summer side, as last week noted, there are numerous rather unknown sports; netball and korfball as examples, but there do not appear to be the same waiting list on the winter side.
My first thought was broomball.
It was once quite popular locally, although that was before my time, which means it goes back a long way.
There was some interest in trying to get the sport going in Springside last winter, but I’m not sure if that came to fruition.
Certainly broomball is played on ice, but whether it has the number of countries involved is doubtful.
Ditto for ingette. Once widely popular in our province, with the emergence of women’s hockey, it has seemed to all but disappear.
Ringette would have had an uphill battle even if its previous popularity returned. The Olympics wants sports involved that have both men and women involved. It was why baseball and softball worked as a unit in their effort to get back on the Summer Olympics roster.
One sport that does get mentioned, at least on online sources, is bandy.
If you have not heard of bandy you are not alone.
“Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team’s goal,” related Wikipedia. “Based on the number of participating athletes, bandy is the world’s second most popular winter sport. Only ice hockey is more popular.”
I found the latter claim a bit of a stretch over skiing either downhill, or cross-country.
“The sport is considered a form of hockey and has a common background with association football, ice hockey and field,” continued Wikipedia. “Like football, the game is normally played in halves of 45 minutes each, there are eleven players on each team, and the bandy field is about the same size as a football pitch. It is played on ice like ice hockey, but like field hockey, players use bowed sticks and a small ball.”
So basically take a soccer pitch, flood it to create a really big sheet of ice, and play hockey with larger player numbers. Some YouTube videos are pretty interesting. I suspect with some play-by-play, a colour commentator, and a team you cared about, it would be generally fun to watch.
Wikipedia did offer some history which was interesting as well.
“Russian monastery records dating back to the 10th to 11th century’s record games which may be ancestors of bandy,” it stated. “A game that could be recognized as essentially modern bandy was played in Russia by the early 18th century, although the rules used differed from those invented in England at a much later date. In modern times, Russia has held a top position in the bandy area, both as a founding nation of the International Federation in 1955 and fielding the most successful team in the World Championships. Russians see themselves as the creators of the sport, which is reflected by the unofficial title for bandy, ‘Russian hockey’.
“The first match, more recently dubbed the original bandy match, was held at The Crystal Palace in London in 1875. However, at the time, the game was called “hockey on the ice”, probably as it was considered an ice variant of field hockey.
“The name “bandy” comes from Britain, which has played an important role in the sport’s development. Bando, a game played in Wales in ancient times, is similar to bandy. It was played throughout the country in varying forms and is still found in some areas. The earliest example of the Welsh-language term bando occurs in a dictionary by John Walters published in 1770–94. The game became particularly popular in the Cynffig-Margam district of the Vale where wide stretches of sandy beaches afforded ample room for play. As a winter sport, British bandy originated in the Fens of East Anglia where large expanses of ice formed on flooded meadows or shallow washes in cold winters, and skating was a tradition. Members of the Bury Fen Bandy Club published rules of the game in 1882, and introduced it into other countries. The first international match took place in 1891 between Bury Fen and the then Haarlemsche Hockey & Bandy Club from the Netherlands (a club which after a couple of club fusions now is named HC Bloemendaal). The same year, the National Bandy Association was started in England.
“The first national bandy league was started in Sweden in 1902. Bandy was played at the Nordic Games in Stockholm in 1905 and between Swedish, Finnish and Russian teams in Helsinki in 1907. A European championship was held in 1913 with eight countries participating.
“As of 2016 national federations exist in over 30 nations, including Afghanistan, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Canada, Czech Republic, People’s Republic of China, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Somalia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United States.”
Note Canada does have a national body, but it has zero ‘Net presence, so check it out at www.usabandy.com or http://worldbandy.com
If there is a variation on hockey why not a variant on curling too; called ice stock
“Ice stock sport (also known as Bavarian Curling) is a winter sport, somewhat similar to curling,” again related Wikipedia. Competitors slide ice stocks over an ice surface, aiming for a target, or to cover the longest distance. Ice stocks have a gliding surface, to which a stick (ca 30 cm) is attached. The sport, mostly practised in southern Germany, Austria and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, has been demonstrated at the Winter Olympic Games on two occasions. Although the sport is traditionally played on an ice surface, events are also held on tarmac in summer.
“Although the sport is probably much older, the first proof of ice stock sport being practised stems from a 16th-century painting by Belgian painter Pieter Brueghel. It would take until the 1930s before the sport became organized. A German federation was established in 1934, and German championships were established two years later.
“European Championships were first held in 1951, and World Championships were first held in 1983, after the International Federation Ice Stock Sport (IFE) had been established.
“First written mention of ice stock sport as messengers arrive to bring news of the capture of Richard Lion-heart to Leopold V Duke of Austria, who were playing ice stock on the frozen river Donau by Vienna shortly before Christmas 1192.”
There are several disciplines in ice stock sport, of which only target shooting and distance shooting are contested in international championships.
The game can be seen on YouTube.
In the target shooting version, two teams of four players each take turns in aiming for a target, the so-called Daube. Points are gained by being closest to the Daube after all four players have thrown their stock.
In distance shooting, the aim is simply to slide away the ice stock as far as possible.
Yes there is ice stock in Canada. Just search Canadian-Ice-Stock-Federation on Facebook or www.icestockcanada.ca
Bandy and ice stock may be the most likely sports to join the Winter Games at some point, but there are a couple of others to mention too; in particular ice surfing, which is more or less a snowboard with a sail that allows competitors to race, and it’s sort of counterpart ice sailing, a bigger sail on what looks like a boat ( www.iceboating.net ).
There is also snocross on fat tire bikes, ( a definite winner in my books ), and snowshoe races ( www.snowshoerunning.org ), which fit.
So there you have it, obscure as they may be, but there are winter sports that could join the Olympics should they truly desire to expand that side of the Games.
