Pole Dancers Push to Compete in Next Olympics

(Feb. 24) -- Pole dancing, the titillating mainstay of strip clubs throughout the globe, may one day be an Olympic sport, reports the New York Daily News. KT Coates, a pole dancer in England, and fellow advocates are circulating a petition for a test event at the 2012 Olympics and a more formal event four years later, in Rio de Janeiro.

Currently, they have 4,000 signatures, which seems unambitious considering a weekend canvass of strip clubs in New York alone could probably double that number.

At first glance, it seems unlikely that the Olympic committee would recognize pole dancing as a sport, let alone one that warrants an Olympic forum. (Many more-established sports, like squash, are not represented in the games.) But in recent years, pole dancing has in fact migrated from strip clubs to tony sports clubs, where it's become a popular and challenging fitness class. It's even been featured on Oprah. Hong Kong held pole-dancing championships in 2007, and other countries have similar competitions.

The historical origins of pole dancing remain murky. According to one account, the earliest recorded instance of a pole dance was in 1968, at an Oregon strip joint called Belle Jangles at Mugwump. It became a popular trend in the 1980s, first in Canada. Others date pole dancing to Depression-era America, where dancers would use tent poles as a prop. There's also a tradition of pole dancing in China, though it's often performed by men and stresses gymnastics over eroticism. Presumably, an Olympic version would not involve the strip dance that accompanies pole dancing in erotic venues.

But that worries some advocates, who believe an Olympic version of pole dancing would see world-class gymnasts push out the current crop of erotic dancers. "I don't need to see pole dancing in the Olympics," U.S. Pole Dance Federation co-founder Wendy Traskos said. "I don't think this is necessarily the path that we need to take, as a sport."

Traskos shouldn't worry. The famously staid Olympic officials -- who recently sent packing U.S. snowboarding bronze medalist Scotty Lago after only slightly racy photos appeared -- are unlikely to endorse anytime soon an event that is closely associated with strip clubs and lap dances.

This is not to say eroticism has no place at the games. According to one former Olympian's account, among athletes the games are as well known for the sex that goes on in the off hours as for the competitions themselves.

And while you're not going to see pole dancing on NBC over the next few days, there remain many non-Olympic venues in Vancouver where you can check it out, should you desire. No doubt the city's strip clubs are faring well with the tourist influx. The only question is if alongside their standard entertainment, they're also providing TV coverage of curling.