American Football in the Olympics?

Not so fast, cowboy...

Here's a partial press release by the International Federation of American Football.  The announcement was made on Thursday.

IFAF EARNS RECOGNITION BY THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on the 10th of December 2013 to grant the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) provisional IOC recognition during their meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. IFAF is American Football's international governing body with 64 member nations spanning six continents.

"IFAF is proud to receive this recognition and join the Olympic family," IFAF President Tommy Wiking said. "The enduring ideals of sport that comprise the Olympic Charter reside in our game's timeless values and in the spirit of the millions who love to play it.

"Joining the Olympic family" might be overstating things a touch though.  It implies full acceptance and that's far from the truth. A website called "Inside the Games" gives further explanation as to what happened this week and what it means for the future:

The IOC will decide in two years whether to grant the IFAF full membership, meaning technically it could bid to become part of the Olympic programme in 2024, a decision due to be made in 2017.

Any such campaign would be unlikely to succeed, however, ahead of other sports like squash and karate which have been bidding for several years now.

Early obstacles to overcome would include the fact that the sport is primarily perceived as being based largely in America and also the introduction of a proper drug testing policy that meet the tough requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

So there is a long way to go.  It may be quite a while until what we know as American football is ever played on that stage (perhaps flag football could pave the way).  But it would never happen without this one key endorsement first taking place so in that sense, this recognition is indeed a significant step forward.