20 million strong! Why netball deserves its Olympic place

Netball’s biggest ambition is now our reality.

Having missed its moment before Sydney 2000, Brisbane 2032 looms as netball’s once-in-this-generation opportunity for Olympic inclusion. It’s not about parochialism. Or symbolism. Or even a very possible Australian gold medal.  

It’s about merit.  It’s about time. 

• PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT AND SIGN OUR PEITION HERE

As a player, I had the honour of winning two Commonwealth Games gold medals, and captaining the Diamonds to a World Cup victory, but never the privilege of competing at the Olympic Games.

As the current Chair of Netball Australia and a custodian of this country’s most popular team sport for women and girls, I feel a deep responsibility to all those who pull on their netty shoes each week and deserve to see our great game showcased on the biggest stage of all.   

I know this view is shared by many across the Netball ecosystem and sport more broadly both at home and abroad. 

And if the initial results from our call-to-action launched last weekend around Netball's ambitions to join the Olympic movement in Brisbane 2032 are anything to go by, the people of Australia are right behind us. More than 25,000 signatories signed up in just 48 hours! 

In many ways, the support we have received is not surprising given that, here, on home soil, netball has the privileged position of being the heartbeat of so many communities, from the suburbs to the regions.

Internationally, it has sprouted from Commonwealth roots to encompass 20 million participants in more than 80 countries, from South Africa to Switzerland, Scotland to Sri Lanka.   

For far too long, netball has been the world’s most-played sport that many Olympic Games-watchers have never seen. If, and when, they do, they will love the skill, athleticism, speed and physicality. They’ll love its unique qualities.

Sure, you can sit there and say, “It’s a bit like basketball, it’s a bit like European handball.’’ But - in my humble opinion - it’s better.  It is a true team sport, where everyone has a role, and no one single player can dominate. 

We’re also in a far better place than at any time in the 25 years since our last home Olympics. That extends from our global digital/social reach to strong broadcast numbers to a record 2025 attendance for Suncorp Super Netball that made it the most-watched season for any domestic women’s league in Australian history.

And those fifteen thousand screaming fans who were there for that iconic Melbourne Vixens Grand Final win last Saturday night in one of Australia’s ‘big houses’, Rod Laver Arena, will never forget that moment.   

Proudly, similar records and engagement metrics have been recorded in other parts of the world, including in the UK with the re-vamped Netball Super League having a record season, capped off with a final at the iconic O2 Arena in London last month. 

Netball is a sport on the move - we have momentum and have no intention of dialling down our ambition, we are doubling down!  

Netball is played on every continent (except Antarctica!). The development of the African nations is visible every four years at the World Cup and in the world rankings with a quarter of the top 20 teams hailing from the continent.

Partly through increased import numbers in SSN - the world’s best league and breeding ground for the world No.1 Origin Diamonds - we’ve seen the Caribbean nations and England become major threats. There is a growing peloton of the elite. 

There are also about to be millions more eyeballs than ever, due to two recent - and groundbreaking - broadcast deals that will attract and engage new fans.  

The first is with Whoopi Goldberg’s All Women’s Sports Network (AWSN), which has a reach of 900 million households worldwide, and showcases some of the biggest leagues on the planet.

The three-year agreement will beam all 41 SSN games into 65 new countries. In Whoopi’s words: “We want to make sure that we put you everywhere in the world so that everybody knows about you.’’ The ultimate sister act. 

The second is with global content distributor Inverleigh, to broadcast SSN and Origin Australian Diamonds matches live and free across the United States, Canada and Africa.  

Inverleigh’s 24/7 linear sports channel, UNBEATEN, has a reach of over 300 million active users in North America via multiple major streaming platforms including Amazon Prime.  

Look out universe. What Australia has seen and known for almost a century, far more of the world will now get to witness, too.  

The elite athleticism, incredible skill, lightning-fast decision-making, laser-focused teamwork. All while encapsulating the Olympic ideals of excellence, friendship and respect.

And yet, despite ticking so many IOC boxes, netball continues to sit on the sidelines watching sports with a far smaller international footprint and less commercial clout welcomed to the pinnacle event. 

It’s argued that netball is largely confined to the Commonwealth. So is cricket, which will return for the first time since 1900 in Los Angeles in 2028. There are plenty of sports that are predominantly European. Another LA debutant, flag football, is uniquely American. 

Then there's the irony that a sport that has empowered women by providing generations with a platform to lead, compete and inspire does not have gender “equity”.

Yet if women have the numbers and the star power in this sport, inclusion for Brisbane 2032 might just be the key to supercharging the elite game for boys and men. 

Netball is the fastest growing male participation sport in Australia, and we’ve seen the national side, the Kelpies, showcased in curtain-raiser matches for the Diamonds. The potential is boundless and the inaugural men's World Cup a possibility as early as 2028.  

All-female additions to the Olympic program are not without precedent. Think artistic (formerly synchronised) swimming, and rhythmic gymnastics. while noting that women’s football (soccer) and beach volleyball are among the prime ticket-sellers at each recent Games. 

Far from being a negative, netball can help with the push for as close as possible to 50-50 gender parity given that a male-skewed imbalance still exists.

The 50% ambition refers to total numbers - so not just athletes, but all roles including coaching, leadership and officiating. By over-indexing, netball can assist with the, well, net result. 

But this is not just netball’s opportunity. It could be a major win for the Games. At a time when the IOC is striving to become more contemporary and inclusive, adding one of the few elite international team sports designed by women, for women, sends a powerful message: that women-first sports are not side acts, or even the half-time entertainment, they are main events. 

And it’s just smart business. Another strategy adopted by the International Olympic Committee since Tokyo 2020 has been to enhance the Olympic programme by including sports proposed by the host city—often those with strong cultural relevance or local popularity. Think surfing and skateboarding, for example.

What better sport to showcase in Australia, where netball is deeply embedded in the DNA of every city, town, village, community in this country. 

With netball as a medal sport in Brisbane, stadiums will be packed with a loyal, established, ecstatic audience. Australians will turn up en masse, Kiwis will flock across the Tasman and our African and Caribbean nations will bring carnival-level energy.

That’s not wishful thinking, that’s history, as sellout crowds for the Netball World Cup and Commonwealth Games attest. 

Far from being a drag on the B2032 budget, a fully funded netball program can boost the bottom line. And the host of three successful World Cups (with a fourth on the way), has a fine track record of delivering major events.  

There is the scope to take the preliminary rounds regional if necessary and start in the lead-up week as required. Importantly, in north and south-east Queensland, the infrastructure to deliver a netball competition in the Olympics already exists.

As part of a broader legacy piece, this could be the crowning glory of a green-and-gold netball decade that includes the 2027 World Cup in Sydney in NA's centenary year. 

My hope is that the current generation of netballers do not watch the opening ceremony in Brisbane believing their sport is not Olympic worthy. Also, that the quadrennial “but where is netball?” question is not still being asked in 2032. 

I want women and girls - and a growing cohort of men and boys - all over the country to be able to watch their heroes play in the greatest sporting show on earth, and dream that one day it might be them. 

Netball’s absence from the Olympics isn’t a reflection of its value — perhaps just of outdated perceptions. It’s time to change that, seize the moment and put Australia's enduring grassroots game up where it belongs. On the Olympic court.  

It's the perfect location. It’s deserving. It’s time. 

• Liz Ellis AO is Chair of Netball Australia and a former captain of the Australian Diamonds and NSW Swifts.