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The committee responsible for Paris’ bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games is going to have a discussion with the International Olympics Committee about whether esports could be an Olympic event. This would make the Olympics the next athletics event after the 2022 Asian Games to incorporate esports as a full medal event.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Paris bid committee co-president Tony Estanguet, said that, ‘We have to look at it because we can’t say, “It’s not us. It’s not about Olympics.” The youth, yes they are interested in esport and this kind of thing. Let’s look at it. Let’s meet them. Let’s try if we can find some bridges.’ Obviously he isn’t aware of the potential of a bridge as a tactical vantage point.
Estanguet didn’t say it’s a definite, but a conversation would be had about the possibility, saying, ‘I don’t want to say ‘no’ from the beginning. I think it’s interesting to interact with the IOC, with them, the esports family, to better understand what the process is and why it is such a success’. You might want to start with Dota 2 and CS:GO.
If this actually did go ahead, which it probably won’t, It wouldn’t be the first time that esports has featured at an athletics event. There was an exhibition tournament held alongside the 2016 Rio Olympics and esports will be incorporated as a full medal event in the 2022 Asian Games.
A final decision on whether to include esports as an Olympic event probably won’t be made until after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, by which time Konami can have revived the International Track and Field series which could curb the chances of doping taking place. There’ll no doubt be an uproar from BBC licence fee payers losing their s**t and tearing their hair out at the mere notion of esports being an Olympic event. That I’d pay to see.
