THE FUTURE of sport is here and it's wearing blue chiffon. Ballroom dancing, or dance sport as it has re-christened itself, is set to become an Olympic sport.

Actually, it already is. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) gave it provisional recognition in 1995 and if all goes to plan it will be granted full recognition in September, paving the way for an appearance in the 2004 Games.

It might all be too much for sports diehards to take. As if ice dance, synchronised swimming and all those other girly games (with the exception, perhaps, of beach volley-ball, which has found a hard-core, lager-drinking support base) were not enough. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned sports - sports that required the participation of a ferret or the application of acceptable levels of mud?

Some of the lads are going to be very, very disappointed. Rudi Hubert, the German general secretary of the International Dance Sport Federation (ISDF), is confident that by the 2008 Games young Olympians will be climbing on to the podium to accept gold medals in modern standard dance, Latin American and rock and roll the three disciplines of the sport.

So confident, in fact, that last week the ISDF teamed up with IMG, the giant British-based sports promotional company, to raise the profile of dance sport.

Dance sport, strictly ballroom if you prefer, will have to fight hard to shake off its rather cheesy image. That will come. Already there has been a move away from those elaborate sequined dresses to something a little more sedate - although the odd purple ostrich is still sacrificed for the cause.

At the Dublin Gold Cup Championships in Tallaght earlier this year, the sequins were out in force. But if the sequins confirmed one set of prejudices, the age range of the competitors did not. They were overwhelmingly young. The tea-dancers had their moment, but not until after midnight when the skimpily-clad young ones had finished with the floor.

And they were good. For amateurs, some of them looked professional.

Christopher Hawkins and Hazel Newberry, from London, are the world number one-ranked couple in the amateur/modern section of dance sport. "If this was the Olympics, you'd be looking at the gold medallists," a Dublin dance official comments by way of an introduction.

Newberry points out that her dresses are provided free by the same company that kitted out Jayne Torville. But she has more in common with an Olympic athlete than the cut of her cloth.

"We are athletes," says Hawkins. We train like any other athlete. We go through two to four hours physical training a day - training that's nothing to do with dancing -just to compete.

"If you put us up against any athlete, from any other sport, we could compete. In Germany they tested the strength and fitness levels of athletes from a range of disciplines, like tennis, football, boxing and so on, and they ranked dancers in the top three."

Hawkins is not over-selling the hard physical work that makes a dance sport champion. The couple have given up work to enable them to spend eight hours a day lifting weights, pounding treadmills and practising their routines. No different from other top-class athletes, then.

But if the thought of having television coverage of Olympic athletics events interspersed with scenes that are straight out of Come Dancing still makes you uneasy, consider the facts.

There are already a number of Olympic medal-winning events with a big element of dance - synchronised swimming, diving, gymnastics (modern and rhythmic), ice dance (all figure skating in fact), some ski jumping events.

The problem, if there is one, with these sports is that they rely on human preference to produce a result. There are no cold, hard criteria for winning, like reaching a tape, or a poolside first. But while these sports are present at the Olympics, the reasons for keeping dance sport out are diminished.

"Archery is a precision sport, so is dancing," says Newberry. "Gymnastics is also a precision sport that is judged on technique and performance. Ice dance is easily comparable. Even running is similar when we do dances like the quick-step we need the same speed and explosive power as a runner, we also need comparable levels of stamina to long-distance runners."

What is more - and what greater indicator of a modern sport is there? - dancers are regularly subject to random drug tests.

"Yes, we've been drug-tested," confirms Hawkins. "We're operating under Olympic rules." The couple were tested at the Austrian Open Championships in 1995 and were clean.

"It's the same as any other sport, we know what drugs are on the IOC banned list. However, no one I know in dance sport has tested positive, although, yes, it would be possible to take something that would help by giving you stamina and getting you to peak at the right moment."

While the ISDF and other champions of dance sport remain optimistic about its inclusion at future Olympic Games, others are not so confident.

"Ballroom dancing has been recognised as an Olympic sport by the IOC, but so has bridge," says Jack McGowran, PRO of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI).

McGowran does not think that Olympic medals will ever be handed out for ballroom dancing. "There are many Olympic sports, but not all are present at the Games themselves. Olympic status is often sought by a particular sporting body as a means of obtaining funding."

He admits, however, that finding a definition of "sport" poses an interesting dilemma.

Under IOC statutes, to qualify for inclusion in an Olympic Games a sport must be widely practised by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in at least 40 countries on three continents. For the Winter Olympics, a sport must be played in 25 countries on three continents to be included.

"To be included in the programme, an event must, first and foremost, enjoy a recognised position internationally in both numerical and geographical terms," say the IOC rules.

A sport may be divided up into events and disciplines, which must have a recognised international standing and result in a ranking "giving rise to the award of medals and diplomas". In 1994, the Centennial Olympic Congress, which was held in Paris, recommended that the principal criteria for inclusion in the Olympic programme should be the universality and popularity of the snorts

The congress's final document further stated that: "the Olympic programme should also take into consideration the development of sports in contemporary society".

On those criteria alone, anyone arguing against the inclusion of dance sport in the Olympic Games is on a sticky wicket. According to Hubert, at the latest count 67 countries were affiliated to the international federation - the number is rising, despite the rigorous standards for membership. Asia, the Americas, Europe and Australasia are all represented, as is Africa, where South Africa, Uganda, Botswana and Zimbabwe all have strong federations.

According to McGowran, at the last count there were about 100 full-time modern pentathletes in the world - not 100 countries, 100 individuals, several of whom represent she same nation.

Why, one may ask, is a sport in which only a handful of athletes participate, a sport that necessitates access to guns, horses and swimming pools, a sport introduced to the Olympics at the turn of the century by Europe's dominant military nations, represented at the Olympics when a sport like ballroom dancing is not?

If Olympic sport is truly about universality and mass participation, if it truly takes account of developments in modern society, arguments against the inclusion of ballroom dancing fall flat on their face. Time for the IOC and the sporting fraternity to face the music.