Netball has never been played at the Summer Olympics, but its federation World Netball has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), since 1995 after a twenty-year period of lobbying. The netball community sees netball's absence at the Olympic Games as a hindrance to the global growth of the game, depriving it of media attention and funding. When the IOC recognized netball's federation, it opened up sources of funds that the global netball community had not been able to access before, including the IOC, national Olympic committees and sports organisations, and state and federal governments.
Women's sport at the Olympics
According to Dyer in 1982, exclusion of netball from the Summer Olympics is part of the historical pattern of the slow growth and gradual acceptance of women's sports. Women first competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics in only three sports: tennis, croquet and golf. Women's basketball has been played in the Summer Olympics since 1976. That year, rowing and handball were also opened to women. Women's cycling was excluded for many years despite having world championships organised by 1958. Field hockey, a sport included for men as early as 1908, was not open to competition by women until 1980. By the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, there were 159 medal events for men, but only 86 for women, and 12 for both men and women, and as late as 1996, 26 countries sent no women to the Olympics. There were still sports that excluded women at the 2000 Summer Olympics, such as boxing, wrestling and baseball. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, both men and women competed in 34 sports.
In 2018, the IOC adopted 25 recommendations from its Commission on Women in Sport. These recommendations seek to establish equal participation between men and women at the Olympic Games by implementing the same venue, equipment, competition rules and uniforms for both genders in all Olympic sports rather than adding women-only sports. At the 2012 Olympics, there were two sports for women only: synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. That netball is also played mostly by women is seen as a drawback. Netball does allow for mixed teams, but the Olympics did not include mixed sex team sports. Rugby sevens and golf, primarily played by men, were chosen for inclusion in the 2016 Summer Olympics for both sexes ahead of netball.
The issue of male overrepresentation in terms of total number of sports and athletes is structural. In the United Kingdom, for example, more male athletes than female ones receive financial support. Sports officials often rationalise this uneven distribution by claiming that there are more opportunities for men to win at the highest level than there are for women. The importance of being part of the Summer Olympics is illustrated by softball, and the benefits the sport derived from its inclusion. This included additional media coverage, especially during Olympic years. Olympic recognition plays an important part in getting sponsorship for local competitions around the world and providing new opportunities for female netball players.
Olympic recognition of the INF
Efforts to gain Olympic recognition started in 1967, at the time when the International Netball Federation (INF) was founded as the "International Federation of Netball Associations". The Jamaican and Singaporean delegations present at the meeting suggested the newly created organisation become affiliated with the World Olympic Sports Council and try to get netball included on the Olympic programme. Opinions were initially split inside the newly formed organisation as to whether this was a goal worth striving for, but ultimately it was decided to work towards Olympic recognition. The federation's first application was rejected because it referred to the sport as women's basketball and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said there could not be two different sports with the same name on the Olympic programme. This rejection was a driving factor for changing the name of the sport. There was tremendous resistance in Australia and New Zealand to this. IFNA made "major concessions" to both countries to persuade them to change the name of their national federations. In 1965, the IOC criteria required a sport must be played in at least 11 nations and the international body represented the sport must have at least 27 national organisations affiliated with it.
A second application was started in 1971 after the previous rejection which reflected the name change. While name changes and other International Olympic Committee suggestions were agreed upon as necessary to go forward, the integration of these changes into the Federation's constitution and governance strategy took over four years and the application languished as a result until 1979, when the IOC responded with a request for additional information on INF's finances and governance. The decision to provide additional information was deferred until 1979's Conference. The Jamaican representatives were frustrated with the slow process inside the organisation and tried to take steps to speed the process up inside IFNA. This included submitting proposals for organisational changes to address the most recent IOC feedback, addressing issues such as player drug testing, the selling of television and radio rights, and how to establish an Olympic draw among other points. Because of Jamaican influence, INF created a specific committee to work on the issue of addressing Olympic requirements, which was composed of New Zealanders Rena Straford, Lorna McOnchie and Anne Taylor. They were supposed to have these issues addressed by a meeting scheduled at the end of 1979.
Delays happened because of the structure of INF and the required material was not ready for presenting before INF's Council until 1983. During this four-year waiting period, Jamaica and Bermuda continued to agitate for the Federation to speed the process along as attaining recognition would provide their region with additional funding and make it easier to grow the sport regionally. The second application was eventually rejected in 1983, with the IOC claiming the sport had "limited popularity". While netball was not able to gain Olympic recognition during this period, it did gain recognition from General Assembly of International Sports Federations. This allowed netball to be played at the World Games in 1985.
Because of the 1983 rejection, an earlier idea that had been tried and failed in 1979 was revisited: Creating regional federations for the Americas, Europe, Oceania and Asia, regional groupings mirroring that of the Olympic organisers. This was implemented by 1987, which was rejected later that year because the sport did not meet all the criteria established and it was not yet a global sport. The IOC viewed the sport as one belonging only to the Commonwealth of Nations. While netball was rejected for a third time, the New Zealand hosts of the 1990 Commonwealth Games managed to get the sport to have demonstration status, with the news of this being announced in 1987. That same year, netball also gained full member status from the General Assembly of International Sports Federations In the meantime, the IOC did provide the Federation with a grant, though none of this grant money was used by 1991. Because of what appeared to be the unlikely recognition by the IOC, the Federation urged its national members to seek membership with their national Olympic committees so national federations could access national funding in order to help grow the sport inside their home countries.
The INF decided try again for Olympic recognition, but the Federation was irritated because they had never been given clear guidelines for what the IOC was looking for in terms of a federation gaining Olympic recognition. The Federation believed that every time they met the criteria they were given, there was a new hoop for them to jump through. An example of this was a requirement given to the Federation 1992/1993 that the IOC be given technical specs for venue space should the sport be included on the Olympic programme. The Federation continued to work to address these requirements and eventually, in October 1993, netball through IFNA was given provisional Olympic recognition, requiring a two-year probation period. This recognition came with a per year per region for the Federation to develop the sport around the world.
In 1995, the IOC recognition of the INF became permanent, after a twenty-year period of lobbying and a two-year probation period. This is just one prerequisite to netball being added to future Games. IOC recognition of INF has meant national associations could become full members of their countries' national Olympic committees. National members of INF were able to apply for that recognition by 1993. The All Australia Netball Association is one national organisation that has become a full member of their national Olympic committee. In 2004, IOC recognition of the INF was renewed. The INF has made Olympic recognition part of its long-term strategy towards continuing to grow the game.
Netball supporters tried over many years to get the sport played in the Summer Olympics. In 1996, the netball leadership actively pursued the possibility of netball being played at the 2000 Summer Olympics. The government of New South Wales encouraged the Australian Olympic Committee to lobby for the inclusion of netball in the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Netball England national team member Tamsin Greenway, two time Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes and Olympic heptathlon competitor Denise Lewis are English supporters who in 2011 supported adding netball to the Olympic games.
In an extraordinary session in Mexico City in November 2002, the IOC decided to limit the total number of sports to 28, events to 301 and athletes to 10,500, slowing the process of adding new sports to future Olympic Games. At the extraordinary session, the IOC set forth the requirements that a sport must meet before it is eligible for inclusion in the Olympic programme. The table created in the documentation for this meeting is provided below:
NameExampleConditions to be met for inclusion in the Olympic GamesFederationFédération Internationale de NatationAdminister one or several sports at world level and encompass organisations administering such sports at national level (national federations)Have statutes, practice and activities in conformity with the Olympic CharterHave adopted and implemented the World Anti-Doping CodeSportAquaticsFor the Games of the Olympiad: be widely practised by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents and by women in at least 40 countries and on three continentsFor the Winter Games: be widely practised in at least 20 countries on three continentsHave adopted and implemented the World Anti-Doping CodeBe admitted to the programme seven years before the Olympic GamesDisciplineDivingHave a recognised international standingFor the Games of the Olympiad: be widely practised by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents and by women in at least 40 countries and on three continentsFor the Winter Games: be widely practised in at least 25 countries on three continentsBe admitted to the programme seven years before the Olympic GamesEventIndividual springboard (diving)Have a recognised international standing both numerically and geographically, and have been included at least twice in world or continental championshipsBe practised by men in at least 50 countries and on three continents and by women in at least 35 countries and on three continentsBe admitted three years before the Olympic Games
The requirements that sports, disciplines, and events be practised in a minimum number of countries, formerly found in Rule 47 of the Olympic Charter, were removed from the Olympic Charter in 2007.