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Bowling at the Summer Olympics
IOC Code	BWL
Governing body	IBF
Events	2 (men: 1; women: 1; mixed: 0)
Summer Olympics
1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 2028 Note: demonstration or exhibition sport years indicated in italics
Medalists

Bowling was featured in the Summer Olympic Games demonstration programme in 1988 at Seoul's Royal Bowling Center. A total of 20 nations competed in the men's and women's tournament. No bowling professionals competed in the demonstration events.

Post-1988 lobby

The first multi-sport event in which bowling was contested as an official sport was the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand. Bowling has been an official sport at every quadrennial World Games from the first edition in 1981 in the United States, including the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland. The sport was removed from the Asian Games program for the 1982 Games in Delhi, India, but returned four years later in the 1986 Games in Seoul, South Korea. The public interest in this edition of the Asian Games was resounding. As a result the bowling industry lobbied long and hard for bowling to be recognized as a potential Olympic sport and a demonstration sport for future Games, but the outcome was not successful. A negative factor is that bowling lacks inexpensive or easy access for youth in the underdeveloped world to acquire skill and proficiency. However, after its first demonstration appearance at the Americas-exclusive 1983 Pan American Games, bowling appeared as an official sport with full medal status at the 1991 Pan American Games on August 2, 1991, in Havana, Cuba. The medal-level competition has been held at every Pan American Games since then, including the 2019 Games held in Lima, Peru.

Sport for the 2020 Summer Olympics

On 22 June 2015, it was announced that bowling made the cut from the 28 sports to the last eight to become a new sport for the 2020 Summer Olympics. The shortlist of these sports for consideration was based on applications from 26 international sport federations, many of which have applied for inclusion in previous Olympic tournaments. However, in September 2015, it was announced that bowling, together with wushu and squash, were left out for 2020. The 2020 Olympic Committee wanted sports that appealed to youth and that did not require building new facilities to reduce cost.

References

1. "Results of The World Games". Retrieved 14 Sep 2020.
2. Should Bowling Become An Olympic Sport? bowlingball.com
3. Grasso, John; Hartman, Eric R. (2014). Historical Dictionary of Bowling. Lanhan, MD USA: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 441. ISBN 978-0-8108-8021-4. In 1951 the Pan American Games, a quadrennial multiple sports competition for Western Hemisphere countries, was inaugurated. Tenpin bowling was added to the official program in 1991. In 1983 it was contested as a demonstration sport.
4. Sports that may soon be Olympic events include bowling, climbing, karate, and surfing
5. Tenpin bowling misses Olympic Games inclusion

• Ten-pin bowling competitions
• Discontinued sports at the Summer Olympics
• Events at the 1920 Summer Olympics
• Olympic demonstration sports