The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), Asia’s supreme sports governing body, and all its members, are supporting wushu, the Chinese martial arts also known as Kung Fu, to become an official event at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.
OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said, “I think all Asia will go together to support wushu to be part of the Olympic Games”.
The International Wushu Federation (IWUF) has been trying to make wushu an Olympic event since 1998. The International Olympic Committee is expected to make a final decision on wushu and several other sports at a plenary meeting in Mexico City in about two months.
Al-Sabah said “wushu is one of our Asian sports and we have to support it to also become one of the Olympic sports. As Asians we should work together with full solidarity”.
He said the OCA would write to IOC President Jacques Rogge about this issue and would also write to “all IOC friends” to ask them to support wushu’s Olympic bid.
