The Video Game Olympics are coming soon.
The International Olympic Committee announced on Friday it will create an “Olympic Esports Games” — a global competition mimicking the Summer and Winter Olympics but featuring only virtual sports and video games — a plan that is due to be approved when IOC members meet in Paris next month.
“With the creation of Olympic Esports Events, the IOC is taking a major step forward to keep up with the pace of the digital revolution,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.
Bach previously told China's state-run Xinhua news agency that the first Olympic esports tournament could take place as early as next year, and no later than 2026. He said Friday that the IOC was already “in far-advanced discussions with potential host cities.”
According to Bach, eSports games include three types of video games: virtual sports that involve physical activity and mimic real-life sports, such as e-cycling, as well as sports simulation games (such as NBA 2K) and two types of traditional video games, non-sports video games, which Bach calls “traditional e-games.”
Friday's announcement doesn't mean that video game competitions will take place alongside sports like gymnastics and swimming at regular Olympics like the one starting in Paris next month. Rather, the IOC clarified that esports games will be an entirely separate event overseen by a different team within the IOC.
“This structure must be clearly distinguished from the organisational and financial model applying to the Olympic Games,” Bach said.
The IOC has been teasing the possibility of creating an Olympic esports competition for several years now — it hosted an “Olympic Esports Series” in Singapore last year — and officials have spoken repeatedly and consistently about finding new ways to attract a younger audience.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
