Pole Dancing in the Olympics?

Before you read on, please keep in mind that curling is an Olympic sport.

Carolyne Braid, owner of Pole Dancing Winnipeg, is part of a global community that would like to see pole dancing -- the activity commonly associated with strip clubs and a wad of small bills -- included in a future Summer Olympic Games.

"What we really are trying to do is take it out of the clubs, trying to bring it more mainstream," Braid said yesterday. "We're trying to get people to recognize the fact that there truly is a lot of skill and athleticism required to do this.

"It really isn't that different than gymnastics from a training perspective, it's just that this happens to be vertical."

While pole dancing is making its way into the living rooms of suburbia thanks to operations like Braid's, it still has a long way to go when compared to Europe. There, the European Pole Dancing Championships is an event judged not from the round of applause from the spectators in the front row, but on the athletic ability of the participants.

Obviously, losing the sexual element is the biggest hurdle facing the activity in gaining Olympic status, but Braid feels not many can appreciate the skill needed when assuming the pole position. It is a gymnast discipline, one that takes a unique strength and agility.

And all the clothes stay on.

"Not everyone has the opportunity to try to pick up their own body weight on a pole, but what I've found is once people experience touching the pole, be at a home party or formal fitness classes, the first reaction that we always get is 'Wow. This really does take a lot of work,' " she said.

"Until we get more people experiencing it first-hand, making it more mainstream and more accepted, we're still going to have that issue.

"People say that it really isn't a sport and it shouldn't be in the Olympics, but there are so many other things where people look at them and wonder how they are sports."

What could she be referring to?