Since 1996 when Japanese teams first competed in the annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic at the Apollo Theater, a Japanese team has won the “Best In The Show” award, every year except 2001, when Japanese teams did not compete because of 9/11 and 2004, when Brooklyn based, Jumpers in Command, beat the Japanese teams for the first and only time.
This year, Peek-a-Boo from Chiba, Japan won Best In The Show with Beast from Kanagawa, Japan winning second place, Turkey, based in Osaka, Japan took third place for a complete sweep of the top three awards in the “Best In The Show” competition.
Teams from Paris, France; Tortola, BVI; and Kaiserslautern, Germany also competed in a New York City sport that has gone international. The National Double Dutch League www.Nddl.Org asked Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel to speak with the Olympic Committee to get double dutch declared an Olympic event. There has been no reply.
Double dutch probably got its start back in ancient times when Egyptian, Phoenician and Chinese rope makers turned hemp into rope by wrapping the hemp around their waist and turning it an egg beater fashion until it became a rope, over 300 years ago, the Dutch settlers bough the game to New York City where it remained popular until the 1950s when television ended most NYC street games as children stayed at home watching their favorite TV shows.
In 1973, the late David Walker (Retired detective sergeant, NYPD) along with his community affairs partner, Mike Williams, noticed that there were no PSAL inter mural sports for girls. They did a Double Dutch demonstration in Harlem for the then NYC Board of Education. The Board of Education liked what they saw and Double Dutch was a PSAL sport during the 1970’s-1980’s until it died for lack of money. Since 2008, once again Double Dutch is a competitive sport in the NYC public school system.
