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Briton Shaun Murphy, world champion snooker. PAUL ELLIS / AFP

Billiards officially launched its bid for the Paris Olympics in 2024. The "Billard 2024" campaign, promoted by the French Billiard Federation (FFB) and the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS), aims to make this discipline one of the additional sports of the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

Recalled for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, billiards is again trying to apply for the Olympics of 2024 in Paris. In co-operation with the French Billiard Federation, the candidacy campaign is supported by the International Confederation of Billiars Sports. The "Special Olympics" competition format should be run with national teams of three players playing one-hour matches.

1,500,000 licensed in Japan

Game played on the ground in its early days, billiards is a popular discipline worldwide. Japan has more than 1.5 million licensees, and in Seoul, South Korea, there are more than 15,000 licensees to practice it. Mexico is the second largest country to play billiards. In the United States, an estimated 40 million people have practiced billiards at least once in the year in 2017. In Africa, five countries (Egypt, Algeria, Libya, South Africa and Sudan) participate every two years at the African Championship. Egypt represents 80% of African players, including Sameh Sidhom currently ranked in the world top 10, and double champion of Africa.

It was in 1873 that the first professional world championship took place. In 1905, the International Olympic Congress in Brussels classified the game of billiards as a sport and declared their sporting utility. It was in any case recognized as an Olympic sport in 1998. Since that date, billiards has been present at all the World Games, the antechamber of the Olympics.

A sport practice in its own right

" I dream of Olympic gold ," says Shaun Murphy, world snooker champion in 2017. The one who started billiards at the age of 8 and started his professional career at 16 is talking about very demanding sports practice ". " Billiards is a sport that affects all cultures, from young people to seniors, men and women, at the competition level or in social circles, " says the athlete who is nicknamed "the Magician".

" Billiards has all the advantages of a sport ," says Frenchman Jérémy Bury, vice-champion of the world of Carambole also called French billiards. There is the tactical, strategic and psychological dimension, not to mention the physical side for stress management and concentration .

" I discovered the competitive spirit "

Gwendal Maréchal, 21, European junior three-band billiard champion, discovered billiards with his grandfather at the age of 12. " I liked the whole technical part right away. But then I discovered the competitive spirit. It's a real sport and we want to be the best. It takes physics to train between 10 and 15 hours a week. When I say that I play billiards first we laugh. But when I explain my competitions and say that it makes me travel, people are impressed, "says the boy from Lorient in Brittany.

The sports that will be added to the program of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris should be announced by the IOC in September 2019. Karate, surfing, climbing, skateboarding and baseball-softball will make their appearance as additional sports during the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.