Olympics news: Esports is coming to the Olympics, it’s just a matter of when | Locker Room
Baseball, cricket, lacrosse, flag football and squash are officially Olympic sports. What’s next? The looming introduction of a booming sport has been labelled an insult.
As a loving parent, I’ve pulled the plug on my son’s PlayStation before.
I’ve ripped the cord from the wall with more aggression than it takes to start a lawnmower.
I’ve hidden controllers in bins and threatened to hurl the entire console into the sea.
“I’ve just got to finish this game.’’
Grrrrrr...
Never could I imagine that I could be responsible for robbing a family member of an Olympic medal.
And quite possibly, you could be standing on world sport’s loftiest dias too.
We all could.
All you need is a headset, TV and the elite-level thumb control to navigate an A9 gold hairpin in Gran Turismo or the finger speed to shoot a dribble pull-up in NBA 2K24.
Debate and divided opinion has raged this week over the addition of five sports, including baseball-softball, cricket, lacrosse, flag football and squash, into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics program.
The lucky five secured their spots in the wake of breakdancing, headed for its debut on the Paris 2024 Olympic program next year.
The early mail is that Menno van Gorp, from the Netherlands, will moonwalk to collect his gold medal.
Confused about where the Olympics is going?
You haven’t seen anything yet.
Esports, shortened from Electronic Sports, or more widely recognised as video games, is coming to the Olympics.
It’s just a matter of when.
How do we know?
IOC President Thomas Bach announced last week during the Opening Ceremony of the 141st IOC Session in India that he had asked “our new IOC Esports Commission to study the creation of Olympic Esports Games.”
The IOC President noted that there are three billion people playing Esports and gaming around the world.
It has been reported that there are over 500 million of them who are interested specifically in Esports which includes virtual sports and sport simulations.
“What is even more relevant to us: a majority of them are under the age of 34,” added Bach.
The IOC has been putting its enormous weight, adding increasing momentum, behind Esports being part of the Olympics for some time.
A major step towards Esports being part of an Olympic program was taken in Singapore last June.
The inaugural Olympic Esports Week saw over 100 athletes compete as individuals and teams across 10 virtual sports – including taekwondo, sailing, car racing, baseball and tennis.
It was all heavily backed by the IOC.
The Olympic Esports Week attracted 20,000 attendees over four days. There were trophies and victory ceremonies.
Singapore e-racer Ar Muhammad Aleef Mohamed Rafik, who competed in the Gran Turismo 7 motorsport event, said after he was bundled out of the event that he hoped the event was an opportunity to increase fans’ exposure to various sports.
He told The Straits Times: “Motorsport is physically, and mentally demanding, I hope it gets through to more people and we’ll have more opportunities to race against the best in the world.”
Sorry, this isn’t the Olympics. Far from it.
Pushing a button and steering a hand control around a corner is an insult to Ian Thorpe or Emma McKeon’s record five Olympic gold medals by any Australian.
It‘s a slap in the face for Kieren Perkins winning from lane eight at Atlanta in 1996.
It would make a mockery of Cathy Freeman and her 400m glory in Sydney 2000, which is in the pantheon as one of the greatest-ever moments in world sport.
I’m all for the IOC’s bid to remain relevant to young people, while embracing technological advances.
Olympic sports that attract younger audiences, like rugby sevens, surfing and skateboarding, require unique aerobic capacity, courage, poise, balance, power, strength and skill.
Freestyle BMX is another new sport that joined the Olympic charter at Tokyo 2020.
We would never have witnessed the precision, fearlessness, joy and emotion of Australia’s Logan Martin winning the freestyle BMX gold medal in Tokyo without the IOC’s foresight to add the sport to its program.
I can also appreciate why the five new sports have been included for Los Angeles 2026.
But video games at the Olympics?
Seriously, rip the cord.
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