CRI听力:Wushu Hopes to Go to Olympics by 2024

This year's World Wushu Championships in Jakarta features a record number of 600 athletes and attracted thousands of viewers.

Many of those rising to the medal dais come from emerging Wushu nations. Russian Wushu athlete and former gold medalist Daria Tarassova believes that the sport should be in the Olympics.

"I believe, and I'm sure that Wushu now is well known all over the world so it should be in the Olympics soon."

The efforts of the International Wushu Federation suffered a setback when Wushu was dropped from a shortlist of sports being considered for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
However, the organization has not been put off.

Vice President of the International Wushu Federation Anthony Goh is confident of inclusion in next Olympic Games.

"I think Wushu is just visually spectacular and I think that people who have never seen it for the first time. They are totally impressed and say 'wow, I didn't think it looked so good'."

Wushu has come a long way since a rising martial artist named Jet Li demonstrated the sport at the White House in 1974.

It has transformed from a centuries-old, exclusively Chinese combat discipline into a professional sport with a world federation and global participation.

U.S. national team coach and long-time Wushu fighter Mario Martinez says the sport is quite popular in the country.

"Our hope is really for Wushu to ultimately develop into an Olympic sport. We believe that it's already there."

Martinez adds that many US athletes on his squad worked full time to fund their travel for Wushu tournaments abroad.

He is still confident Wushu will be accepted by the Olympics.

"It's developed in a format that's perfect for competition, it has fighting, it has weapons, it has all of the fast moving action of all martial arts condensed into one."

For CRI, I'm Niu Honglin.