David vows to fight on for Olympic squash

Malaysian superstar Nicol David has vowed to continue her fight to include squash in the Olympics following its rejection by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the 2016 Games, a report said Thursday. "My dream has always been to play in the Olympics and I will do everything I can to see squash in the Games," David was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper, adding she was now training her sights on 2020. The 28-year-old, who has been the women's world number one since 2006, has won every title that top-level squash has to offer and is regarded by many as a living legend in the sport. With little left to prove, she has made squash's inclusion at the Olympics a special mission, and in 2009 requested that the IOC include squash in the list of sports for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. But the IOC instead picked golf and rugby -- both former Olympic sports during the early 1900s -- for reinstatement in 2016. "It’s discouraging that the IOC have rejected our appeal for the 2016 Olympics as well, but I haven’t given up hope," David said. Squash is featured at international sporting competitions like the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games but has never been an Olympic sport. In November, David won a record sixth women's World Open, the sport's world championship. She vowed to continue to push for the sport's inclusion in the 2020 Olympics. "The world title is so huge for me, but even so I would trade all of my world titles for an Olympic gold medal," she said last month. David was inducted into squash's Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Rotterdam, Netherlands in November.