My name is Poppy Dougherty and I am ten years old. I play for a Netball club called the Yamba Breakers and my team is called the Ruby's. I have been playing Netball for four years now. I love Netball, and I believe it should be included in the Olympic Games for the following reasons:

Firstly, I find it very unfair that many niche sports with relatively low worldwide participation rates such as table tennis, breakdancing, 3x3 basketball, European handball, and shooting; get to be in the Olympics and Netball does not!!! Netball should be included because it is a popular sport for both spectators and players. It is a team sport and is a lot of fun.

Secondly, Netball is a fantastic sport to watch. There is always something going on, and it would be exciting at a whole new level if teams were battling for Olympic gold!!! Netball is included in the Commonwealth Games, which is great but, as you know, the Olympics is a MUCH bigger competition!! Netball is hugely popular in countries like Australia, New Zealand, England and Jamaica. In fact, over 20 million people worldwide play Netball in more than 80 countries!!! It isn’t just Commonwealth countries either- there are at least 10 other countries that have a full International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) membership!

Surely all those people who play Netball will want to either become professional and participate in the Olympic Games, or would love to watch their country play. Also, it is imperative to the future of the Olympic Games that you include sports that the youth are interested in, otherwise in future generations, there will be no interest in the Olympics and it will struggle to stay relevant! Here is a fact I’m going to throw at you: Even though fencing was one of the first Olympic sports, it no longer has anyone’s interest! Only 9500 people participate in fencing in Australia, whereas 874,000 people in Australia participate in Netball! 

Thirdly, you don’t need much for a Netball game and the necessary facilities are relatively low cost and easy to build too! All you need is a stadium with a court inside, a few seats for spectators and BOOM! There’s your Olympic Netball stadium! It is nowhere near as complicated, expensive or time consuming as building expensive skateparks; custom made BMX tracks or world class equestrian centres! 

Also, the IOC states that for a sport to be included in the Olympics, it must be played by women in at least 40 countries. I mentioned earlier that Netball is played in over 80 countries, remember? Men's teams exist in around 20 countries, but I’m sure if it was included in the Olympics, more men's teams would be created and this would further encourage young males to get involved in the sport of netball.

Thank you for reading the above points and considering signing this petition to bring about the change required to include Netball in the Olympics, hopefully by 2032 when it is in my country (Australia) so that I can go and watch OR, even better, represent my country in the Green and Gold!! I have written a letter to the International Olympic Committee outlining the above also, and it is my hope that I can send it to them with this petition signed by at least 1000 people. If you agree with me that Netball should be included as an Olympic sport, please sign my petition AND forward it to as many people as you can to help spread the word.  LET'S DO THIS!

Yours sincerely,

Poppy Dougherty