Bid in place for surf life saving to join Olympics

We look towards 2032, a big push for Surf Life Saving to be included in the program in 2032. And that began this week. And you notice one of the famous faces there is Iron Man legend Trevor Hendy. So he’s very much a part of this push to have Surf Life Saving included in 2032. And he joins us right here on 9’s Wide World of Sports. Trevor, good to see you looking for. For there he is. So what’s behind this Trevor, and is it a a real possibility that we could see what really is an iconic Australian sport included in the program for 2032? Morning Nick and Chloe. And I’m actually here at Maroochydore Aussies right now where 8000 competitors go over the week and we just had like a mini cyclone come through. So I feel like I’m one of those Florida reporters in a hurricane, you know, hold on to a file for you. But but you know, I really call life saving the sport of the heart. It’s probably the only elite international sport that actually the athletes have to do patrols, community service. So they put their spare time into actually looking after others and rescuing other people so. Given that the Olympic Committee and movement is now heading towards wanting to change the world through sport, I think it’s a really good chance that in southeast Queensland, one of the biggest homes of life saving in the world, that it’s a real fair chance that we could get in. Because the values are completely aligned with where the Olympics want to go. And you have to see these men and women racing regularly. If it comes in, they’ll be basically what is their Iron Man and Iron Woman and surf, which is called Ocean Man and Ocean Woman on the international circuit and a teen version of that as well. So. That allows countries from all around the world to bring their kayak paddlers and Olympic swimmers and everything else to compete in as well. Trevor, now that that bid has been submitted to the IOC, what does the process look like from here? Yeah, it is actually a long process. So there’s obviously sports that will be put in the the short mix. But what it actually comes in, it’s no longer decided by the ISS, decided by the host city or the host country. So what that means is Australia will sit down and look at what are the key sports that they would like to include in it. And funnily enough, there’s only a certain amount of sports. So there are sports that will go out for whatever sports come in. So life saving, would love to get in and then ultimately being a, a, a world sport, 50 countries. In the world, compete in the World World Games, the World Championships and life saving is all around the world and all the Stillwater areas and lakes and seas and everything else. So not just to get in but to stay in would be the ultimate goal. So it’s probably not till 2027 that we actually find out, find out the final decision. It is a good story to tell Trevor. It really is. And how good to see Australian surf life saving such an iconic sport in Australia, possibly in Olympic Games. Thanks for joining us this morning. That’s true icon of Australian sport.