It’s an unlikely quest: Get pole dancing into the Olympics.

But the International Pole Sport Federation very deliberately held its World Pole Sport Championship in London a week before the Olympics began — hoping to attract attention for its campaign to get pole dancing onto the slate for Rio de Janeiro 2016.

“These women are incredible athletes,” says International Pole Sport Federation president Timothy Trautman. “But we do fight the stereotype that it’s for strippers.”

Well, there is that, the stripper thing.

Will “pole sport” get into the Olympics? Doesn’t seem likely — but if it did, Natalia Tatarintseva of Ukraine would be favored to win the gold. She just won the ’12 World Pole Sport Championship. She’s a former rhythmic gymnast — not a stripper — and she looks like this:

Right?

She is not a stripper. Really, she is not. But if she wanted to go into stripping… she’d do well. These photos are from facebook.com/Miss.Pole.Dance.Ukraine.