Quidditch enthusiasts want Harry Potter sport in Olympics
Posted July 10, 2012 9:20 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Players of the real-life version of Harry Potter game quidditch used the Olympics to showcase their sport, which they think is worthy of being included in the Games.
Made famous by J.K. Rowling’s wizard stories, quidditch came to Oxford in England on Monday as part of the celebrations marking the arrival of the Olympic torch in the city.
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Since the first non-fiction game at a college in United States in 2005, the number of people wanting to pick up a broomstick and play quidditch has steadily grown. This Sunday was the sport’s first major international tournament, called the Summer Games.
Teams from five countries travelled to Oxford to compete, with the U.S. coming out on top. To finish off the event and link in with the Olympics, on Monday the winning team from the U.S. and the team from the host nation, the UK, played an exhibition match in Oxford’s South Park.
Alex Benepe, one of the sport’s founders, set up the New York-based non-profit International Quidditch Association in 2007 as players started to take the game more seriously and quidditch now boasts a rule book and an annual World Cup.
Dressed in a top hat he was on hand to provide match commentary, and when asked if he thought quidditch could become an Olympic sport he said: “Well there are a lot more ridiculous sports in the Olympics if you ask me, so I think anyone who doubts it should come out and see Quidditch and see how intense it is, it’s a rough sport, it’s an exciting and dynamic sport and I would encourage anyone who has their doubts to come out and try it for themselves.”
Meanwhile British player Abbi Harris from Leicester University revealed she has high hopes the sport might make it into the Olympics: “It would be nice, rugby started off and everyone didn’t think that would work and look at it now and so hopefully in a few years time Quidditch might get there too”.
Allison Gilette, a student from Emerson College in Boston, also sees the potential quidditch has: “I think there are some very interesting qualities about this sport that makes it very different from other sports and garners more attention from people who wouldn’t necessarily pay attention to traditional sports, so I think in 20 or 30 years time this has a lot of potential as long as we keep going the way we are.”
Just like fans of Harry Potter will have seen, the real life sport is similar to that played by Harry and his friends at Hogwarts, minus any flying of course. Although all players do have to carry a broomstick. Fans watching clearly loved what they were seeing, as for it becoming an Olympic sport though the reaction was mixed with some saying they would definitely watch it if it was and others disagreeing. Later in the day, Benepe and some of the players headed to the LOCOG stage to see the last torchbearer of the day light the Olympic cauldron.
Quidditch was adapted in 2005 by U.S. students at Middlebury College in Vermont. Since then, the sport has spread to 25 countries and has some 700 teams, mainly based in the United States and largely at colleges and universities.
