Brief aan het IOC / Letter to the IOC

Gezien de toch wat tegenvallende prestaties van de Nederlandse sporters op de Spelen, ter verlichting van het leed hierbij een luchtige bijdrage aan de Olympische geest!
Vreemde snuiters, die sporters. Die zijn hun halve leven bezig om olympisch kampioen hink-stap-springen (wie heeft dat bedacht?), kleiduivenschieten, schoonzwemmen, pistoolschieten (weinig vredelievend) of BMX-er te worden. Maar luchtgitaar, dat aan alle criteria voldoet, is nog niet olympisch! En dat met deelnemers uit inmiddels 25 landen, afkomstig uit alle continenten, 100% amateurs, met duizenden deelnemers wereldwijd (kom daar maar eens om bij het kogelslingeren) en met als belangrijkste doel: 'de wereldvrede dienen'. Als dat niet in de geest is van Baron de Coubertin dan weet ik het niet meer. In 2004 schreef ik daarom een brief aan Jacques Rogge met het verzoek de mooie air guitar sport toe te laten tot de Olympische spelen. Onderstaand de integrale brief (c. G. Vergouw).Dear Mr. Rogge,

Please let me inform you on a sport that is taking the world by storm: 'Air Guitar' playing. As a practitioner myself, I can assure you that Air Guitar is a competitive global phenomenon. My reson for contacting you lies in our hope to become part of the Olympic movement as soon as possible. In order to do so, please let me inform you on the subject a bit more.

Currently, there are world championships held every yar in Oulu, Finland, where this year more than 4.000 people attended the finals. National championships are held in nine countries now, (in 2008 al 24, red.) a number that is increasing very rapidly. Among the participating countries are the USA, Australia, Austria,your home country Belgium and the Netherlands. The number of players is amounting to tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands worldwide. This is much more than in curling, bobsleighing, 10 kilometers speed skating, ski-jumping, deluge (Winter Olympics) or javelin-, shot-put- and discusthrowing, speed walking and triple jump (Summer Olympics). Altogether, of course.

The rules are very comparable with those used in figure skating and background music is played during the compulsory and free round competition rounds. There are no professionals in our sport. The Olympic Ideal of Mr. DE Coubertin is held in high esteem by our players: in our sport, participating is far more important than winning. After becoming part of our air guitar family, all players have the obligation to promote world peaceduring their career! This is of course one of the most important issues Mr. De Coubertin, your founder, adressed.

Air Guitar playing is also a very attractive television sport and played mostly by men in their twenties to forties. Worldwide, the international press has given the championships an enourmous amount of coverage, i.e. BBC, CNN, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, The Times, NRC Handelsblad et cetera.

This leads to the following question: is it possible for our sport to become part of the Olympic movement? I am looking forward to your reaction, yours truly,

Gyuri Vergouw

Organiser of the Dutch Air Guitar Championships

(copyright Gyuri Vergouw/afkomstig uit De lucht tussen mijn vingers, de universele geschiedenis van de luchtgitaar; blz. 21).