Dubai: Call it shear madness. If New Zealand farmers get their way, sheep shearing will be an Olympic demonstration sport.
The farmers from the Antipodes want the International Olympic Committee to include the farming skill on the world stage.
The country, home to 4 million people and 40 million sheep, produces some of the best shearers on the planet.
The Golden Shears, its national championship, receives lucrative sponsorship and substantial airtime on New Zealand television.
New Zealand Federated Farmers said the world's top shearers were "athletes who take it to another level".
The country will host the world shearing championships in March and Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre chairwoman Jeannette Maxwell said it was an appropriate time for the sport to press for wider international recognition.
Maxwell said men's and women's world record-holders Ivan Scott of Ireland and Kerri-Jo Te Huia of New Zealand showed the athleticism necessary to reach the top of world shearing. The IOC, however, is likely to dismiss the notion as a ‘baaaaaaaaad' idea.
"In 2008 it was mooted by Sports Shear Australia but, surely, the time has come to elevate shearing's sporting status to the ultimate world stage," Maxwell said.
