Quidditch Part 2 7/9/12
By: Scott Leber
Updated: July 9, 2012
The Olympic games have evolved over the years with different sports being added and dropped. This year since the games are in London the Harry Potter game of Quidditch has been added as an exhibition sport. Tonight Peter Fleischer takes us to Illinois State University where some of the top player sin the country play.
Some people associate Quidditch with the fairy tale setting on Harry Potter, but it's played here in the United States, and it hits hard.
"Broken ankles, broken shoulders, bruised ribs. Some players, I think one just had two teeth pulled. Other players also broken shoulders are really common. Knee injuries are common," said ISU Quidditch player Matthew Norris.
At ISU Quidditch is a sport that's taken very seriously. ISU is frequently a top ten team in the IQA..International Quidditch Association. They also compete in the real life version of the Quidditch World Cup.
(Isaac Mitchell, ISU Quidditch player) "Last year at the World Cup there were about 100 teams. It was on Randall Island in New York. It was really fun just to have that many people associated with the same kind of sport," said ISU Quidditch player Isaac Mitchell.
The sport's popularity has risen so high in the real world that it will be played as an exhibition sport in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
"Just to have it at that level and to have everyone see what it's really about it's really awesome," said Mitchell.
"And they would like to continue going as high as they can go. Take the game as far as it can last because it's something people enjoy doing. It's fun. And I think it extends past the Harry Potter generation," said ISU Quidditch player Shayla Johnson.
The future of Quidditch is unknown as there is no precedent for taking this storybook sport and making it a real life event. However, although players aren't flying around on brooms in this sport the sky appears to be the limit.
