Pole Dancing in the Olympics?

Iina Laatikainen, one of Finland's top pole teachers, likens pole dancing to skateboarding and snowboarding, two sports that have gotten serious mainstream attention without completely abandoning their rebellious roots.

"I think getting in the Olympics would be great for the sport," she said.

"I actually see a lot of similarities in what pole dancing is now for

women with what skateboarding used to be for men back in the day. Pole

dancing is definitely on its way to becoming a mainstream sport."

But some pole dancers worry the sensual side of pole dancing, and its

counterculture undertones, would be destroyed in an effort to clean it up for the Olympics. After all, would it really be the same without

stilettos, a boozy audience and a red-tinted spotlight? And how do you

score for sexiness?

TOKYO - For Japan's Mai Sato, watching all those gold medals being handed out in Vancouver is a bittersweet experience.

Sato knows the demands of being the best. In her world, blisters are the

rule, bruises a way of life. And the training — five hours a day, five

days a week.

The world champion in her sport, Sato is as athletic, dedicated and

competitive as the Olympians representing their nations. And she thinks

it's high time her discipline, too, got some real recognition.

Still, pole dancing? In the Olympics?

Absolutely, say thousands of pole dancers and the rapidly growing number

of international and national federations transforming what was once the

exclusive property of strip clubs and cheap bars into a respectable — and highly athletic — event.

"I could definitely see pole dancing in the Olympics," said Sato, who, a

dancer since the age of three, out-twirled a bevy of athletes from 11

countries at the second International Pole Dancing Fitness Championships

in Tokyo two months ago. "I would love to win a gold medal."

"There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport," she

said. "The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people

doing pole fitness now. We're shooting for 2012."

KT Coates, a leading pole dancer in Britain and director of Vertical Dance, is leading the effort to make pole dancing a "test" event in 2012 and foresees a more formal pitch in 2016, when the Olympics go to Rio de Janeiro.

"After a great deal of feedback from the pole dance community, many of us have decided that it's about time pole fitness is recognized as a

competitive sport, and what better way for recognition than to be part of the 2012 Olympics held in London," Coates wrote in a petition she is

readying for the London organizers.

"It has the wow factor," she told The Associated Press in an e-mail.

So far, the petition has about 4,000 signatures. Coates is shooting for

5,000.

Others fear old-school pole dancers would be eaten alive by gymnasts, who could easily make the conversion from other apparatuses, circus performers or Chinese acrobats, who have a long tradition of performing aerial tricks.

"I don't need to see pole dancing in the Olympics," said Wendy Traskos,

co-founder of the U.S. Pole Dance Federation, which will be hosting its

annual U.S. championships next month. "I don't think this is necessarily

the path that we need to take, as a sport."

Traskos, a former competitive gymnast who lives in New York, believes pole dancing needs to do more groundwork before it shoots for the Olympics. In particular, scoring for competitions needs to be standardized, she said, adding that the names of the techniques vary among different clubs in different regions.

"I feel there are many small, tiny, steps that need to be taken before

this sport, or any sport, can get into the Olympics," she said. "We are

on, like, tiny step 10 of 1,000."

Nevertheless, she said pole dancers on the medal podium is not as wild a

dream as it might have seemed just five years ago.

"Now, when you talk about it you don't hear 'like a stripper' anymore,"

she said. "You hear things like, 'Oh, my friend takes classes for fitness' or 'Yes, I've seen it on Oprah."'