Neglected Sports

Traditional sports from the non-Westare not recognized and have been keptoutof the Olympics because theWesthas not“blessed”them as genuine sports.Yet some in the non-West，for example，strive to compete in such Western sporting events as beach volleyball，horseback riding，rhythmic，gymnastics，and synchronized swimming.With ballroom dancing now an Olympics sport，let us hope that non-Western nations do not begin to invest in this sport.Yet，if they don't they will continue to lag in themedal count，which could also be considered another GNP1 indicator count.

4-10　Dragon-boat Racing

But what if non-Western nations focus on sports in which they have a comparative advantage？How，for example，would the IOC react to suggestions to include traditional events like…drum dancing，hand fishing，tree climbing with bare hands，palm wine tapping and consumption，a 100-metres sprint race pushing discarded car tyres or rims，running with an egg delicately placed on the head，a sack race，trap shooting with slings or catapults but no guns（what the West can do with a gun a skilled African marksman can do with the catapult），wood chopping or kabaddi2—traditional wrestling—as in Pakistan？Whatabout camel riding in order to accommodate the M aghrebs3 of the Sahara region？

With all these included in a refined Olympics，will theWest continue to dominate？As a Somali proverb states，“What you lose in the fire you must seek in the ashes.”Is such a level playing field possible？The future option for the non-West in the Olympic Gamesmust be either to build on its own model of traditional sports or to utilize its numbers in the IOC to force a change.The non-West cannot continue participation in an Olympic Gameswhere winning on Western terms is its essence.To do so is to promote inequity and further humiliation.