IOC plans to create Olympics for esports

The president of the IOC (International Olympic Committee), German Thomas Bach, stated this Saturday (Oct 14, 2023) that there are plans to create an e-Sports Olympic Games (electronic sports) “shortly”. He made the statement during the entity’s summit meeting in Mumbai, India.

“I asked our e-Sports Commission to study the creation of Olympic Games in these modalities”said Bach.

According to the director, studies show that more than 3 billion people are fans of games around the world, including around 500 million people who are interested in competitions of this type, whether in games that simulate conventional sports or other types.

Bach also reiterated the fact that the majority of e-Sports players are under 34 years of age, bringing together age groups of great interest to the IOC.

The creation of a gamer Olympics comes in the wake of the IOC’s initiatives to implement competitions in the electronic atmosphere.

In 2021, the entity created the so-called Olympic e-Sports Series, a type of electronic sports competition circuit. It also recently launched e-Sports Week, held in Singapore in June.

This event had debate tables and exhibitions on several games, but also crowned circuit champions in 10 games, almost all simulators of real sports, although not all of them Olympic.

Some examples were “Tic Tac Bow” (archery), Virtual Taekwondo (taekwondo) and “Tennis Clash” (tennis). Successful games outside the sports simulation atmosphere, such as “Just Dance” e “Fortnite”were also part of the week.

According to Thomas Bach, these events are like the first steps towards establishing an electronic sports Olympics.

With information from Brazil Agency.