In July 2021, Brisbane secured the rights to host the 2032 Olympic Games, winning a landslide vote amongst International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegates, 72 to five.
The news was well received by Australians who love their sport and particularly well by netball fans, who thought this may just be the sport's best chance to finally debut on the Olympic program.
Roughly three weeks later, World Netball and Netball Australia launched a joint campaign in the hope of pushing their case for Brisbane 2032.
And although it feels like time is on their side, with almost a decade to go before the event starts, there are also plenty of factors working against them.
It took 20 years of lobbying and three failed attempts in 1967, 1983 and 1987 before netball was recognised by the IOC as an official sport in 1995.
And while this endorsement was a step forward, netball has since been knocked back at least four times in its quest to be included on the Olympic program – in 1996, 2008, 2011 and 2020.
There has reportedly been frustration over the years for World Netball, which feels as if the IOC has given them new hoops to jump through each time they have addressed a previous request; but as it stands, the main issues preventing netball's inclusion lie in its appeal beyond the Commonwealth of Nations and the outside perception that it is mostly just a female sport.
Both of these potential obstructions will be explored in a two-part feature by the ABC, the second of which focuses on netball's push for gender equality and the timeline of its consideration for Brisbane 2032.
The IOC new sport process and agenda
When it comes to the actual process, netball has two ways in which it can potentially join the 2032 Brisbane Olympic program.
The first is through an application from World Netball that would need to be submitted by the IOC's session in 2025, seven years before the Brisbane Games. Here, netball would need a two thirds majority vote amongst IOC delegates for its application to be successful.
The second would require the Brisbane 2032 organising committee to make an application for netball to be included as one of its local sports, no later than three years out from the event.
This is perhaps where netball has the greatest chance of getting over the line, but it is still likely to find itself in competition with other popular Australian sports like cricket, squash and rugby league.
This second process also doesn't tend to lead to a permanent presence at the Games, with sports such as softball / baseball falling away for Paris 2024 despite being approved for Tokyo 2020.
No matter which way netball tries to go, the factors that will be taken into consideration by the IOC will be based on the Olympic Agenda launched in 2020 – which listed new quotas that cap the Games at 10,500 athletes and strive for an overall 50 per cent female participation rate.
Netball is a team sport, with seven athletes on court for each side and an extra five starting on the bench (based on Commonwealth Games match standards), so organisers will have to consider whether this puts too much pressure on the athlete cap.
However, other sports like rugby have managed this hurdle in the past by holding qualifying tournaments that lower their number of countries and athletes competing at the actual Games and also entering their sevens format rather than their traditional 15-player format.
In terms of the gender split, netball skews heavily female and this could either hinder or help its chances, depending on what happens with the other sports involved at Brisbane 2032. In Tokyo, the gender split was 48.8 per cent female, while the Australian team was 52 per cent female, so things are already heading in the right direction.
Netball Australia has been working hard over the past 12 months to promote its men's game, with various men's Tests staged as double headers alongside the women's matches at both the trans-Tasman Constellation Cup and England Roses series held in October and November.
Various Super Netball clubs also signed official men's training partners for 2023 and are doing more to promote their profiles. Male players have often helped elite female teams prepare in their pre-season and weekly training sessions, but it has been in a silent capacity behind the scenes.
So, will it be enough for netball to demonstrate an increased commitment to the men's side of the game, or would it be required to enter a separate men's and women's division?
If the latter was the case, would there even be enough international competition to stage a men's netball event? And how would that further impact the athlete cap?
These are all questions yet to be mulled over by the IOC and Brisbane 2032 organising committee.
Interest in men's netball growing at exponential rate
However netball decides to shape its proposal, Australian captain Dylan Nexhip believes the task is attainable in the time frame.
Especially knowing the increased interest in the men's game since those inaugural double headers last year, which are expected to take place again in 2023 for the Constellation Cup.
"I definitely think it's possible, it just depends on what format they look at, there's lots of rumours around that it could even be a mixed Fast5 event, so how it looks we're not sure," Nexhip said.
"You think about skateboarding and all these progressive sports that are coming into the Olympics and wonder if the traditional approach is even what they're looking for anymore."
Fast5 is a condensed version, featuring five players on each side and an adapted set of rules: shorter quarters, power plays and super shots. Since 2009 World Netball has run a regular tournament – generally once a year – where they invite the top six international women's teams to participate.
Just days after the double-header series wrapped up in November between Australia and England, the sport staged its tenth instalment of the Fast5 World Series in New Zealand. They also introduced a men's division, where the hosts beat Nexhip's Aussie side to claim the inaugural title.
Men's netball is currently run in each country by their own organisations, who operate entirely separate to the administration of the women's game. But this Fast5 tournament was the first instance of the men being invited to play under the world governing body. It was an important step in the right direction and one Nexhip hopes will lead to greater alignment.
"Jamaica has a men's team, they've got a series lined-up with England next year, and some of the African countries also have men's teams in places like Uganda, Malawi, Kenya and South Africa.
"Even in Asia, for example, we had Singapore come over and play in our Australian Men's and Mixed Netball Championships Reserve Division just last month, there are traces of it around the world.
"Fiji are another one, in any country where netball is a big sport for women – particuarly the Commonwealth countries – most of them would have a men's team, it's just not public knowledge."
How are other female-dominated Olympic sports doing on this front?
There are other female-dominated sports that have been an integral part of the Olympic program for many years, including artistic swimming, formerly known as synchronised swimming.
The sport's origins were derived from ballet, its first demonstration was at the 1952 Games and it has officially been on the program since 1984 as a female-only sport, but that is about to change.
Last December, the IOC announced men would be allowed to participate in the artistic swimming team event at Paris 2024. This event features eight athletes and men will now be able to make up to two of those spots. They will not be permitted to take part in the duet event.
The breakthrough comes nine years after FINA first permitted men to participate at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, showing just how long it can take to get up to speed at the Olympic level.
Australia currently has at least one male artistic swimmer in its sights – 23-year-old Ethan Calleja – who became the first male athlete to represent our nation in the sport back in 2019.
Ben Howard, the chairperson at Artistic Swimming Australia says the changes have been welcomed, but there are plenty of strengths to be found in female-founded and dominated sports.
"Artistic Swimming's strength is that it has actively promoted female athletes, coaches and administrators at a time when traditionally in sport, they were the minority.
"In recent years we have actively been calling for equality in the sport and were very vocal that we wanted male representation at the Olympics.
"We were hopeful it might come in by Los Angeles 2028 and were pleasantly surprised that male inclusion has been fast-tracked for Paris 2024.
"Artistic Swimming Australia is of the belief that females and males should have equal opportunity to represent our nation at the Olympics and all other events in artistic swimming."
There are 10 teams expected to compete in the team artistic swimming event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, so if each country was to select two male athletes, they would make up just 25 per cent of the event's participants.
It will be interesting to see if the IOC will accept a similar gradual step towards gender equality when it is considering netball's proposal, or whether it will have a different set of expectations for new sports.
So where is World Netball at in its campaign?
The ABC reached out to World Netball to request an update on how they were progressing in their joint bid with Netball Australia for Brisbane 2032.
The two bodies have created a working group to further investigate the opportunity and say they have held "useful" meetings with the IOC and AOC since announcing their intentions to fully understand the process.
World Netball believes some of its strengths lie in its high participation base, the quality of its major events like the Netball World Cup, its strong governance structure, exemplary anti-doping record, and its culture and ethical values.
It holds a strong position in five continents, particuarly Africa, is the number one team sport for females across Oceania, and has been inspiring and supporting women and girls for over 125 years.
As part of its strategy 'To Grow, To Play and To Inspire' some of the goals it has identified include: working with the Commonwealth Games Foundation to introduce Fast5 netball to the Commonwealth Youth Games, building a charitable World Netball Foundation, creating structures to ensure its athletes have a voice in the decision-making of the sport, and growing its presence at continental games such as the Central American and Caribbean Games, the African Games and the Asian Indoor Games.
"The formal process for additional sports for Brisbane 2032 has not yet started," World Netball said in a statement provided to the ABC.
"The focus is [currently] on additional sports for Los Angeles 2028, so this stage its very much about understanding the objectives of the Games and how they align with World Netball's strategies.
"In the meantime, World Netball has consulted with its members and regions to ensure we have their support and have considered the steps that need to take place to create a compelling case."
Read part one of the ABC's Brisbane 2032 Olympics netball feature here which discusses the obstacles the sport faces as it tries to expand its reach beyond the Commonwealth of Nations.
