Phil Taylor is one of the greatest sportsmen this fine country has ever seen. A man who has reigned at the top of his sport for as long as most can remember. He has been a great example to younger generations, and has inspired many people throughout his long and illustrious career.
He holds a record 16 World Championships, six ‘PDC Player of the Year’ awards, and has been nominated for ‘Sports Personality of the Year’ twice. The one thing this sporting icon does not own, is an Olympic medal. No matter how you dress it up, this fact is a travesty and an almighty injustice.
This year’s PDC World Championship was one of the most exciting in history. Taylor was in scintillating form, his old nemesis Raymond Van Barneveld had returned to his best in spectacular fashion, and a star was born in the shape of Michael Van Gerwen.
As soon as ‘The Power’ lifted the Sid Waddell trophy, the recurring issue was raised again, does darts belong in the Olympic Games?
Now that wrestling has been axed from the Olympic roster, there is a spot to be filled, and there are seven sports competing to fill it: Karate, Squash, Baseball, Roller Sports, Sports Climbing, Wakeboarding and Wushu. If you are unfamiliar with ‘Wushu’, it is another form of Martial Arts.
Sadly, darts isn’t even trying to fill the void left by wrestling, at the very least it deserves a place in that shortlist, surely? How could roller sports, whatever that is, possibly be considered a better choice for Rio?
After all, the atmosphere witnessed in big darts matches can be unrivalled. The crowd’s reaction to a ‘nine-darter’ remains one of the most unique and thrilling moments in the entire world of sport.
Yet time and time again, it is simply overlooked, many claiming that it doesn’t even deserve to be a sport, let alone an Olympic one. But that view is entirely unjustifiable, just because you don’t need to be an elite specimen with a perfect physique to win, doesn’t mean it’s any less challenging than its more physical counterparts. To stand in front of a large crowd in the biggest match of your life, and throw a tiny arrow into an even tinier target requires a level of concentration and focus which most ‘proper’ sports can’t even come close to.
And how about a bit of variety in the Games? The only current event which comes remotely close to darts in terms of similarity is Archery, hardly a carbon copy is it? Do we really need another fighting event in the shape of Karate or Wushu? We already have Judo, Taekwondo and Boxing to name a few. Darts would be a much needed breath of fresh air.
So why is it consistently overlooked? Well, as much as it seems like darts would be the perfect Olympic sport, there are some cons to consider. As much as we loved watching Taylor, Barney and Van Gerwen battle it out this year, it’s not guaranteed that we’ll see these men competing on the Olympic stage. The current darts schedule runs all throughout the calendar year, and if the PDC or BDO weren’t compliant in ‘making way’ for the Olympics, we would certainly see some big name absences at the Games.
Aside from this, darts isn’t the multi-national game it perhaps deserves to be. It’s easy to foresee the event being dominated by Britain, Holland, Australia and parts of Eastern Europe. An argument that is made invalid perhaps, by the inclusion of baseball in the shortlist, after all it is ‘The American Game’.
The argument will rumble on right through to 2020, and for many more Olympic games to come. And despite the great Phil Taylor claiming that darts won’t be an Olympic sport in his lifetime, it is hopefully only a matter of time until we see a darts player atop the famous Olympic podium.