Polo in the park ... coming soon!

Jodie Kidd Encourages IOC To Reinstate Polo As An Olympic Sport in

London. Former model and Polo Player Jodie Kidd along with MINT Team London Captain today petitioned the International Olympic Committee to reinstate polo as an Olympic Sport, at the launch of Mint Polo In The Park 2012.

“Polo is one of the most exciting and competitive sports on the planet,” says Kidd, “And it’s truly international: at MINT Polo In The Park, there are teams from the Middle East, America, Russia, Australia, India, and Argentina. With the Olympics coming to London this summer, I am asking to the International Olympic Committee to reinstate polo as an Olympic sport, for the benefit of players and spectators alike.”

Kidd was speaking from the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, at the Launch of MINT Polo In the Park - an annual international polo festival played at the Hurlingham Club, Fulham. At the London Olympics of 1908, Great Britain won gold in the polo tournament, which was played at The Hurlingham Club.

Today, The Hurlingham Club is the home of MINT Polo In The Park, a high-octane polo festival played over three days on the 8th, 9th and 10th of June. MINT Polo In The Park has introduced thousands of city-folk to the exciting sport of polo in the heart of London. The event has become a huge hit with Londoners: over 30,000 people attended the event last year, which has won the London Sports Attraction Of The Year Award two years running.

“The Hurlingham Club is the spiritual home of polo,” said Rory Heron, Managing Director of MINT Polo In The Park, “And it was the site of Team GB’s Olympic Polo triumph in 1908. For the past 4 years, we have brought Polo back here in the shape of MINT Polo In The Park and, with the Olympics coming to London this summer, polo has never been more popular.”

Polo was last played as an Olympic sport in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but was not a sport in London 1948, due to economic and logistical challenges of what became known as The Austerity Games. Major David Dawnay captained Team GB at the 1936 Olympics.