Florian Kohler, Jeremy Bury, Shaun Murphy and Jasmin Ouschan
At one of the world’s greatest iconic buildings, the Eiffel Tower, billiards sports launched its bid to get on the program of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The Conference was organised by the Billiards 2024 Committee on behalf of the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS), and was attended by many dignitaries and billiard industry leaders. A media contingent of 35 was present to report on the news.
The WCBS is the world governing body for all billiard sports and is a member of the IOC. Its members are the world governing bodies for their respective disciplines of Carom, Pool and Snooker.
The Conference started with a trick and fancy shot display by the world’s greatest trick shot player, Florian Kohler who delighted the crowd with his amazing skills on a pool table that had been specially installed for the occasion.
Speeches followed by WCBS President Ian Anderson (Australia), FFB President Jean-Paul Sinanian (France) and co-ordinator Jean Pierre Guiraud and by video link, European Carom President, Diane Wild (Switzerland).
Three of the great players from each discipline and all world champions, Jeremy Bury (France), Shaun Murphy (UK) and Jasmin Ouschan (Austria) addressed the Conference to tell everyone of their passion for the sport and what hard work is involved to maintain their high standards. They also expressed how important it would be to them and their player colleagues if billiards would find its way onto the Olympic program.
After the formalities were dealt with, more entertainment from Florian, followed by media questions and interviews.
An absolute show of unity was on display between the various sports federations, personalities and the people representative of their own interests.
A great deal of appreciation must be paid to the dedicated Billiards 2024 Committee for the wonderful effort in putting all of this together. The amount of hard work that it took is unimaginable.
On 11th and 12th March 2019, a demonstration tournament will be conducted in Paris. Further details of this event will be announced soon.
