Bowling in the Olympics 2020 and Beyond

While I am in complete agreement with bowling being recognized as a truly competitive sport on the world stage, there are problems. The main problem in Seoul was that there were no Pro’s allowed at the time. In the last few Olympics there has been a change as to the levels of a game that truly need the profession level to show the true athletics of the game (i.e. basketball, etc.). It also raise a few questions about how the sport will be run, in general and quite a few questions must be answered and problems solved before bowling could be considered for a spot as a demo sport and hopefully a medal sport. Bowling is such a diverse sport and has many variables including but not limited to the lanes and the equipment. The very first question is all about how do you contest this to make it a fair competition and a real test of the greatness of the bowlers?

To begin with a first question what about lane surface and how to make the oil pattern a real test of the skill of the bowlers. Do you make it long, short or do you enlist the help of a company to design a pattern to really test the bowlers. What steps need to be taken to insure that the right and left handers have an equal advantage and equal disadvantage. As I see it, it will be in qualifying rounds where the best of the finalists will be determined by pin fall on a variety of disciplines (patterns) a contest over a real grind session 16 games on each discipline and there will be 4 disciplines or patterns for the bowlers to “Qualify” on.

Short Pattern: This pattern should be no more than 33 ft. in length and test the ability to negotiate a radical change in direction, this pattern should be mostly flat on top, forward buff and reverse buff pattern to be determined.

Long Pattern: This pattern should be no shorter than 45 ft. in length to make the bowlers adjust to ever changing hold and hook patterns as well as playing a lane from multiple angles and harder carry conditions.

Flat Pattern: What usually is the ultimate test of skill, US Open style lane conditions that are 1 to 1, no shorter than 39ft in length and have a sport ratio similar to the US open pattern possibly with a higher volume of oil.

Variegated or ‘Tetris’ pattern. This pattern has multiple layers and oil densities as well as brushings. You’ll have to look up this pattern, it’s hard to describe but when you see it, you’ll understand.

This will be a total of 64 games in the truest form of a fair contest for qualifying for the semifinal rounds all to be seeded by total pin fall, with the top 16 left. The next round will be match play and the pin count will start over. A two game matches (similar to the open), round robin style, to determine who gets to bowl for the medals. While I don’t really like the eliminator style on TV this is a great venue to utilize in an Olympic arena. The top 4 in wins after match play will bowl a one game eliminator or call it placement match where top score gets the gold, second silver and third bronze, any ties would be determined by pin count. Very similar to the track and field where they run for the gold, first is first and first always gets the gold.

Equipment : Due to the differences in bowling balls the Olympics should have a standard set of bowling balls, all made by one manufacturer and all athletes will have this same arsenal of equipment. Drilling will be done on site by a certified professional ball driller and be checked for legal static weight as well. One and only one, one hour practice session will be allowed so that the bowlers can dial in their equipment and see the pattern for the first time. Drilling angles and layouts will be the responsibility of the athlete and their coach. The equipment that will be available will be as follows: 1 Reactive ball, 1 Plastic spare ball, 1 Hybrid reactive ball, 1 asymmetrical ball and 1 urethane ball. This will ensure that all have the same basic equipment and no one has an unfair advantage regarding equipment. The rest is up to the athlete.

Everyone will have an opinion on how an Olympic tournament should be run. However there has to be a beginning ideal or basic starting point. This seems like as good a beginning as any. Let me know how you would do it differently or if you agree with what has been laid out in this article.