13-year-old Ethiopian Squash Player Shines at IOC Presentation

Today marked a crucial step for the sport of Squash in its bid for inclusion in the Olympic Games from 2016. A team of six Squash representatives made their most important presentation so far to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board in Lausanne, Switzerland.

But it was the youngest member of the group, 13-year-old Hanna Fekede Balcha, who was the star of the show.

Hanna is Ethiopian, but her family moved to San Diego, USA, when she was nine years old to build a new life for themselves. Hanna was accepted to the Surf City Squash program in San Diego which enables students to play Squash alongside their studies. Through a structured programme which promotes hard work, both academically and physically, Hanna has progressed to being a Grade A student as well as Under 15 Urban Squash Champion. Her aspirations are now to push boundaries even further in becoming the first member of her family to go to university but also, at 20 years old, her dream is to represent Ethiopia at the Olympic Games in 2016.

View the full story at http://www.squash.ca/e/story_detail.cfm?id=2225

Squash Prepares for Presentation of a Lifetime

The Squash 2016 bid team is making final preparations for its presentation of the low-cost high-impact sport to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board in Lausanne, on Monday 15 June, in its endeavour to have Squash included in the Olympic Games from 2016.

All seven bidding sports will make presentations, and Squash believes that it has all the right attributes to make it worthy of a spot. The bid team will have 30 minutes to prove its worth to the Executive Board. The team of six will be led by IOC Member, HRH Prince Tunku Imran of Malaysia, and will include N Ramachandran, President of the World Squash Federation (WSF), and women’s world No1 Nicol David, along with three other players from across the globe.

As well as debuting a brand new video that highlights just how good Squash looks on television, the team will also talk about the impressive universality of squash, and what a low-cost addition to the Olympic Games the sport would be. Just two glass squash courts would be required to stage the competition, and the WSF has pledged to donate these to the host city. The courts can be placed almost anywhere and importantly their donation would be permanent, so Squash would leave a lasting legacy in Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo.

http://www.worldsquash.org.uk/newspage2008.asp?NewsID=225