Squash at 2028 Olympics: 'I'll be doing whatever it takes to get to LA' - Lisa Aitken
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Lisa Aitken's highest world ranking was 21st in December 2022
Squash making its Olympics debut at the 2028 Games is "an incredible breakthrough" for the sport, enthused Lisa Aitken.
And Scotland's number one is targeting a place in Los Angeles, despite injury and the march of time.
Currently recovering from cruciate ligament damage, the 33-year-old from Montrose has been inspired by the announcement.
"I'll be doing whatever it takes to get to LA," she told BBC Scotland.
"I'm not a spring chicken by any means, currently recovering from a big ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] injury.
"But we don't like to see or think of there being a peak age for athletes in squash, we see many different athletes peaking at different points and I feel like I've still got quite a lot in the tank left to give.
"Obviously you have to take into consideration things like family planning. We only got the news today but already questions like that are going through my head.
"We currently have two mums on the tour who have gone away, had a baby, come back and they are now competing at top ten level - that's really inspiring to see.
"For me, it'll be a case of working out a way which I can continue to train right the way through until LA and then perhaps thinking about that afterwards. So perhaps getting advice on things like freezing eggs. That all of a sudden becomes very real, with quite daunting conversations."
Aitken, who missed two years of competition after contracting dengue fever in 2014, enjoyed a career-best ranking of 21 in December 2022 before injury struck in Cairo a month later.
"It's obviously every athlete's dream to be called an Olympian," she said. "Being able to showcase our sport and all the personalities we have within our game on the biggest platform in the world is just an incredible breakthrough.
"As long as I've been in the sport I feel like we embody the Olympic values - whether it be respect, integrity, friendship and innovation as well.
"Alongside that we've got this really quite ambitious strategy to continue to grow the sport worldwide and being included in the Olympics gives us that opportunity, to target a new, wider audience."
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