Could the Tokyo Olympics be the last one without esports?

The Olympic Games bid committee is looking into the possibility of adding video games to the next Olympics after Tokyo.

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People could be winning gold medals for League Of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive within just seven years, if the Olympics bid committee decides that adding eSports to the Paris 2024 summer games is a good idea.

This won’t affect the Tokyo summer games in 2020, but according to an Associated Press report the committee will be talking to eSports representatives and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to see what can be done.

‘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,’ said bid committee co-president Tony Estanguet.




“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.’

The Olympics often host exhibition tournaments of upcoming sports (they were very keen on skateboarding and other extreme sports for a time) and already spotlighted esports at Rio 2016.

The Asian Games are also already planning to make esports full medal events in 2022, which is likely to have been the catalyst for the Olympic bid committee getting more interested.

Traditionalists will no doubt rail against the idea of esports being regarded as ‘real’ sports, and that’s ignoring the practical problem of how you pick the games and deal with the short careers and corporate sponsorship of professional players.

But esports are rapidly approaching mainstream acceptance, with the BBC and other major broadcasters increasingly embracing coverage of esport events.

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