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No strip club necessary.
Pole-dancing now stands on its own as a provisionally recognized sport thanks to the Global Association of 5️⃣ International Sports Federation, which granted the activity's international governing federation "observer status" earlier this month.
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Choose your 5️⃣ plan ArrowRight "Pole Sports is a performance sport combining dance and acrobatics on a vertical pole," GAISF writes on its 5️⃣ website.
"Pole Sports requires great physical and mental exertion, strength and endurance are required to lift, hold and spin the body.
A 5️⃣ high degree of flexibility is needed to contort, pose, demonstrate lines and execute techniques."
Observer status is the first step international 5️⃣ federations must achieve before becoming full GAISF members, which serves as a great boost for any sport hoping to one 5️⃣ day land in the Olympics.
And that is exactly pole-dancing's goal, according to International Pole Sports Federation President Katie Coates, who 5️⃣ lauded the day the decision was made on Oct.2 as "historical."Advertisement
"The IPSF is very proud to have taken this positive 5️⃣ step towards official recognition and the GAISF Observer Status will give our sport the opportunity to develop further, on the 5️⃣ national and on the international stage," she said in a statement.
"In just eight years we have created a sport, ignited 5️⃣ a global following and inspired a new generation of sportsmen, [sports]women and children.
I am thankful to the IPSF and GAISF 5️⃣ teams and excited about the future of our sport."
The road to the Olympics isn't short, however.
Along with a recognized governing 5️⃣ body, prospective sports must also gain separate recognition from the International Olympic Committee.
Provisional IOC recognition lasts three years, during which 5️⃣ committee members decide whether to give it full recognition.
If successful, the sport's governing body still needs to then petition to 5️⃣ become an official Olympic sport, which can take several more years.
For Coates, however, those obstacles do not sound insurmountable, considering 5️⃣ the uphill battle she said she faced while campaigning to gain provisional recognition from the GAISF.
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"I feel like we have 5️⃣ achieved the impossible," she told the Telegraph this week.
"Everyone told us that we would not be able to get pole-dancing 5️⃣ recognized as a sport."
Today, pole-dancing competitions are as family-friendly as any sporting event - and just as well regulated.
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The IPSF outlines its rules, judging and other criteria in its 137-page document, that lays out guidelines for several 5️⃣ categories of competition, ranging from youth to mixed doubles to para-competition.
Pole dancers are even required to take doping tests to 5️⃣ ensure the sport is clean.
Watching a competition is akin to attending a dance recital of sorts, where the athletes, often 5️⃣ dressed in sparkly two-piece outfits or leotards, perform choreographed routines set to music on two 20-foot poles on a spotlighted 5️⃣ stage.
One pole rotates while the other is static, which allows athletes to perform different types of tricks as outlined in 5️⃣ the rule book.
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The IPSF even began holding its own world championships in 2012.
Russia's Anna Chigarina is the current women's champion.
"Pole-dancing 5️⃣ is not like everyone thinks it is," Coates said.
"You need to actually watch it to understand."
Six other international federations joined 5️⃣ pole-dancing in gaining provisional recognition from the GAISF this month.
They include some other eyebrow-raising activities, including arm-wrestling, dodgeball, poker and 5️⃣ kettlebell lifting, as well as FootGolf, a sport that combines soccer and golf, and table soccer, which is better known 5️⃣ as foosball.
"We warmly welcome our first Observers," GAISF President Patrick Baumann said in a statement.
"This is an exciting time for 5️⃣ them and for us and we will do everything within our remit to help them realize their full potential as 5️⃣ International Federations within the global sport's family and, one day, maybe become part of the Olympic program."Read more:
