The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach has indicated the potential addition of an Olympic Esports Games by 2025 or 2026.
“We envisage we could initiate the first installment of an Olympic Esports Games around 2025, or at the latest, 2026,” Bach announced in an interview with Xinhua earlier this week. He further acknowledged the continual development of AI. “AI will have a significant impact, not only on sports and the Olympic Games, but it will crucially shape all aspects of our lives,” remarked Bach.
Instead of incorporating Esports into the present Summer or Winter Olympics, it appears that the Esports Games would exist as a distinct event, comparable to the Youth Olympics which started in Summer 2010. As of 2023’s conclusion, the IOC validated the inclusion of baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. However, just like these five sports, Esports will not be integrated into the existing Summer or Winter Olympics.
Interestingly, while LA was in the running for the 2024 Summer Olympics, the city had intended to include Esports in its Olympic application.
In the past year, the IOC hosted its initial “Olympic Esports Week.” This event was first launched on March 1, 2023, and was held from June 22-25th, 2023 in Singapore. It featured nine game titles and sports categories, with shooting introduced on May 5th.
The ten categories included:
- Archery
- Baseball
- Chess
- Cycling
- Dance
- Motorsport
- Shooting
- Taekwondo
- Tennis
You can find detailed results from each event here.
Earlier this year, SwimSwam researched the potential influence of Esports on swimming.