Snooker chief believes China's Crucible glory can help push sport to Olympic dream

Chinese youngster Wu Yize won snooker’s blue riband event earlier this week after a thrilling 18-17 victory over former champion Shaun Murphy - the first time in 24 years that the Crucible final had gone to a deciding frame.

Having never previously won a match on the Crucible stage before this latest edition, 22-year-old Wu became the second youngest-ever winner of the world title with his success in Sheffield, only behind Stephen Hendry who was a year younger when he claimed the first of his seven crowns in 1990.

Wu’s triumph represents back-to-back glories for his home nation, and a changing landscape for the sport, with China now the global green baize powerhouse with a conveyor belt of young talents waiting to break through onto the professional circuit.

A title first won by Englishman Joe Davis in 1927, the Far East’s first world snooker champion arrived in 2025 when Zhao Xintong became the history-maker - the first cueist from the continent to have their name engraved on the trophy. Twelve months on, and China and Asia have another global conqueror to celebrate in Wu.

Both Zhao and Wu are now ranked inside the world’s top four - the first time that has happened for China - and will be in striking distance next season of becoming the world number one, following in the footsteps of Chinese snooker’s original trailblazer Ding Junhui who was briefly top of the standings in late 2014 and early 2015.

China ‘really important’ to snooker’s Olympic bid says Ferguson

Snooker authorities continue to advocate for the sport's inclusion into the Olympic Games, and they may now be closer than ever to achieving this goal.

The sport tabled bids for Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, but both cases came up short. It’s possible that officials may try again for Brisbane 2032, and with Britain having been snooker’s traditional stronghold for so long, recent talk of the UK putting in a bid to host the 2040 Games will be of great interest, too.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Chairman of the governing body the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, Jason Ferguson, said that the International Olympic Committee “definitely has got eyes on our sport”.

With a population of over one billion people - the second most populous country in the world - China’s influence at global multi-sport events is very significant.

There are approximately 300,000 billiards halls across the nation. With the world title successes of Zhao and Wu, the appetite for snooker and other cuesports will surely only increase there, and calls for Olympic inclusion may ring louder, resonating with IOC officials who will have to take notice.

China’s newfound success on the professional circuit could be a vital component towards the Olympic dream coming true says former top 32 player Ferguson: “China is a very important country to the IOC - it has been a host of the Games on many occasions and they are heavily invested in sports, in IOC terms.

“So the fact that China is a key market for snooker is a really important part about any Olympic bid.

Three-time Crucible qualifier Ferguson added that nearly 100 countries now have a national snooker structure - stark contrast to when the Olympic push was born.

“When we started this idea of going to the Olympics, we had only a handful of countries playing. But we are ready (for Olympic inclusion). And that’s an exciting proposition.”

Whether winning an Olympic medal would be more of a priority than a ranking or Triple Crown title to snooker’s top names is a talking point, but inclusion to the Olympics would surely benefit the sport as a whole.

For snooker in the UK, it could unlock government and National Lottery funding, putting it on more of an equal footing with ‘less popular’ sports which have enjoyed access to these finance streams for many years.

Cuesports already feature at several multi-sport festivals such as the Asian Games and the World Games. Last year, Chinese duo Xiao Guodong and Bai Yulu opted out of the lucrative Saudi Arabia Masters on the World Snooker Tour in order to compete at the 2025 World Games on home soil in Chengdu. Both won gold medals in their respective divisions.

Snooker was also a founding member of the Paralympic Games, being a permanent fixture on the programme up to and including 1988. Huge progress has been made by World Disability Billiards and Snooker over the past decade as the organisation strives to get back into the Paralympic set-up.