Two waste paper bins, one Olympic dream
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- World Netball is pushing for netball's Olympic debut at Brisbane 2032, with president Dame Liz Nicholl saying a decision is expected soon and that inclusion would "future-proof" the sport for future generations.
- Netball was invented in summer 1895 at Martina Bergman Osterberg's Physical Training College in Dartford, adapted from James Naismith's 1891 basketball game; students initially lobbed balls into waste paper baskets mounted on poles before rings with nets replaced the bins.
- Netball has 13 million players globally and 3 million in England alone, but is no longer a core Commonwealth Games sport after organisers kept only athletics and swimming as guaranteed events on the programme.
- Netball Super League is two years into a 10-year push toward professionalism, with attendances up 45% in year one; the World Cup, launched in 1963, will switch from every four years to every two years starting in 2027.
- England were 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallists and 2023 World Cup runners-up, feats head coach Anna Stembridge and World Netball cite as central to netball's four-year competitive cycle and growing public interest.
- Martina Bergman Osterberg ran a radical Dartford college that trained women as physical education teachers, invented the gymslip, banned corsets and launched netball before her death in 1915; England Netball was formed in 1926, making 2026 its centenary year.
Why it matters: Netball's Olympic inclusion would be transformative for a sport with 13 million players worldwide and 3 million in England alone, and comes as the sport has already been demoted from core Commonwealth Games status — leaving the Olympics as its clearest remaining multi-sport stage.
