It’s a sport, not fruit

The world will be introduced to a new Olympic sport in 2028 and fans who may not be familiar with squash are in for a surprise. First, it’s not a fruit. A namesake is actually a fruit, in botanical classification, although in food preparation, it’s widely considered a vegetable. Second, squash happens to be the healthiest sport of all, at least according to Forbes Magazine in terms of calorie consumption, risk of injuries and physiological benefits. Third, it’s played by about 20 million squashers in more than 185 countries, including the Philippines. In the top 20 men’s world rankings, 10 countries are represented with nine Egyptians leading the way. The other countries are Peru, New Zealand, England, Wales, Colombia, France, Qatar, Malaysia and Spain.

Although squash will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles, it was a demo sport at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires and has been a fixture in the World Games for non-Olympic sports since 1997. Squash has been played in five SEA Games, the last in 2019 when the Philippines took a gold, two silvers and two bronzes. It’s been in the Asian Games schedule since 1998 or the last seven editions. Asians used to dominate squash in both men and women. Pakistan’s Jahangir Khan won 555 straight matches, a world record, from 1981 to 1986 and was a six-time World Open and 10-time British Open champion. Malaysia’s Nicole David was ranked World No. 1 from 2006 to 2015 and won eight World Open and five British Open titles.

Squash has been knocking on the Olympic door since the 2012 London Games. It would’ve been fitting for the sport to break into the Olympics in London because that’s where it originated in the 18th century behind prison walls and later reemerged as a popular game at the Harrow boarding school.

It’s not widely known that the Titanic had a squash court that measured 30 feet by 20 feet in the bow. The fee to play was two shillings for half an hour. There was a spectator’s gallery overlooking the court which was considered a first in a ship. An English squash pro Fred Wright was on board to teach or play with passengers. He was 24. Wright didn’t know how to swim and when the Titanic sank, his body was never recovered. One of the survivors was the reigning world squash champion Charles Eugene Williams. He was on court practicing less than two hours before the collision with the iceberg. Williams was accommodated in lifeboat No. 14. When he arrived in New York, Williams defeated challenger George Standing to retain his world crown that he held for another year.

Wright was booked to play with Col. Archibald Gracie the morning of the disaster that happened around midnight. There is a Fred Wright Memorial Cup that is played in his memory in Philadelphia and sportswriter James Zug said it’s a tribute to a pioneer of the sport. Wright earned a weekly wage of one pound as a squash pro in 1912. There is a squash facility with jumbo and movable singles/international doubles courts at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex where the national team called Kayod Pilipinas trains every day.