This article appeared in the March 2014 issue of the United States Bocce Federation Western Sector Newsletter.

The Olympics have just ended in Sochi, Russia.  Twelve new sports were added to the winter games .  These sports included snowboard events, aerial events on skis and snowboards, women’s ski jumping, and events in other winter sports.  Bocce players have been saying for years that our sport should also be added to the summer games.  The question that I heard the most when I was the USBF president was, “When are they going to put bocce in the Olympics?”  Some bocce players look at curling as “bocce on ice!”  In fact, curling was the most watched winter sport from Sochi with the exception of the prime time evening shows on NBC.

The winter Olympics and summer Olympics are two different situations.  The summer games have grown so large that there has been an ongoing effort to eliminate some of the sports that have been included in the past.  New sports cannot be added unless a sport is eliminated.  Baseball and Softball have already been eliminated from the summer games.  In contrast to the summer games, the governing bodies of winter sports have been successful in adding new events to the winter games.  There are many sports that have been recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as acceptable Olympic quality sports but have not been added to the actual games.  Many of these sports are showcased in the World Games that are conducted under the auspices of the IOC.  Bocce is one of these sports and has been added to the World Games.  The IOC refers to the sport as “boules”

A reader might ask, “Who is in charge of bocce?”  This is where the history part of this article’s title comes into play.  Bocce at the world level is comprised of four forms of the game and each form has an international governing body.  These sports are known as Volo (sport boules), Raffa (Punto, Raffa. Volo), Petanque, and Lawn Bowls. The game of Open is only played in the United States and there is no international governing body for this form of the game.  Over a period of many years each governing body made presentations to the IOC and requested that their sport be recognized and added to the Olympic games. Each of the sport’s governing bodies thought that their form of the game should be the one selected over the other forms.  The IOC turned each of the sports down because they were all similar and related in their basic concept of getting round balls next to a smaller target ball.  The IOC suggested that the governing bodies get together and present a unified approach to the request to have the sport recognized by the IOC.  On December 21, 1985, in Monaco, the Confederation Modiale des Sports de Boules (CMSB) was founded by the world governing bodies of volo (Federation Internationale de Boules – FIB), raffa (Condederazione Boccistica Internazionale – CBI), and petanque (Federation Internationale de Petanque et Jeu Provencal – FIPJB) to petition the IOC to place bocce into the Olympics.  The IOC gave recognition to the CMSB and the sport of boules on October 15, 1986 in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Lawn Bowling (World Bowls) joined the CMSB several years ago. The CMSB presents its application every year to be admitted to the Olympic games but has not been granted entry yet.  The sport was proposed as a demonstration sport at the summer games held in Barcelona in 1992, and almost made it into the games.

The election of new IOC president Thomas Bach bodes well for the future of the sport as an Olympic event.  The current CMSB president, Romolo Rizzoli, recently spoke about a more favorable current for the inclusion of bocce in a future Olympics.  Rome may be making a bid for the 2024 Olympics.  The Italian bocce federation built an all purpose facility near Rome that can accommodate all four versions of the sports in the CMSB.  Having a first class facility already in place might help pave the way to the Olympics for our sport!  The devil may be in the details as to which events from which form of the sport will be added.  The CMSB will have the difficult task of figuring this out but the main thing is that some form of our sport might one day be an Olympic event!

A reader may now ask, “How do I fit into this picture?”  The answer is fairly simple.  The best way to participate and show support for the sport is to become a member of the USBF.  The USBF is the governing body of raffa and is a member of the CBI.  There are three sectors of the USBF in the United States: Western, Midwest, and Eastern.  As a member of the USBF and also a member of a bocce club that is also a USBF member club, two members of your club can serve as members of the sector board.  The sector board members elect sector officers and representatives to serve on the national board of directors.  The sector board can also bring up issues to be presented to the national board to shape the direction that bocce might take in the United States.  The national board elects the national officers and the president of the federation.  The president represents the USBF at the CBI world level.  Looking at the above you can see that as a member, you are only a few degrees of separation from the president of the world governing body of the sport!  It is very important that your club belongs to the USBF and sends two representatives to the sector meetings.  The meetings in the Western Sector are usually held in November and January.  If your club is not currently a member or does not send representatives to the sector meetings you can step up and help remedy the situation!

Being optimistic, when (and not if) the sport enters the Olympics, the USBF will come under the umbrella of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).  In the next ten years it would be very helpful for the sport if many more bocce players join the USBF.  Numbers speak loudly.  As an already recognized sport it would also be beneficial if the USBF becomes a member of the USOC. It would make it much easier to comply with all the future regulations and red tape if the USBF is already on board as a member of the USOC.

The main point of this article is to help understand the complexities of our sport and the difficulty of getting the sport into the Olympics.  Perhaps one day the answer to the most frequently asked question will be  “They did!”