Reconciling a Brutal past with a Sanitised Future – Can Esports Steer the Olympics in the Right Direction?

In a move that signals a tentative step into modernity, the IOC executive board’s decision to include esports as part of the planet’s most revered sporting event shows a mild willingness to embrace an immersive multiverse where feats of athleticism play out in worlds real and virtual.

Their cultural conservatism threatens to alienate the audiences of tomorrow.

By choosing to exclude well-established, albeit "violent," esports titles – games played in packed stadiums with top players earning seven-figure prizes – the IOC is making a critical miscalculation. 

Rather than watching the globe’s best battle it out at ‘Counter-Strike’, we will be subjected to the latest shape-throwing moves of Just Dance and the tedious virtual archery skills of Tic Tac Bow.

It’s a decision that dilutes the 2024 Paris Olympics motto of ‘Games Wide Open’, instead opting for a conservative and restricted view of a global, thriving gaming subculture.  

The Olympics is a platform for celebrating humanity and pushing its limits. Today those limits are more than physical, they exist in the digital realms of gamesmanship and the International Olympic Committee is failing to harness its potency.

Violence is in the DNA of the Olympics.

The ancient Greeks glorified it in the brutal full-contact combat sport known as pankration – a savage blend of wrestling, boxing, and kicking with virtually no rules or time limits. In pankration, the line between sport and assault was virtually nonexistent, and a competitor who perished in the arena was simply chalked up to bad luck.

Fast forward to today, and IOC president Thomas Bach declares that violent video games have “no place at the Olympics.” This proclamation rings hollow against the backdrop of a 3000-year-old tradition steeped in gladiatorial savagery. To ban popular esports titles due to their violent content is not only shortsighted but also historically hypocritical.

Fast forward today and we allow boxing at the Olympics but no forms of virtual aggression. Hmmm.

Attempting to reshape games like Fortnite into something that resembles a classic sports tournament is a misguided effort that fails to recognise the unique nature of digital athleticism. Esports are not meant to replicate traditional Olympic events but to reimagine competition in innovative and engaging ways that resonate with a modern audience.

The Olympics, if it is to remain relevant, must embrace its violent past to forge a future that includes the digital battles that captivate millions today. The Games have always celebrated humanity's extremes and pushing boundaries—physical and now, increasingly, virtual.

To ignore the dynamic and culturally significant world of esports is to deny a crucial evolution of the competitive spirit.

Launching in 2025, the Enhanced Games promises a seismic shift in sports: a pro-performance enhancement event with no drug testing—a pharmaceutical free-for-all under the motto “Science is real.” 

If the hype holds true, world records will be obliterated, setting a new benchmark for human potential.

The president of the privately funded organisation, Aron D’Souza, wants to reinvent an ancient model and create an Olympic Games for the “era of short attention spans and the TikTok generation”.

While permitting athletes to use whatever drugs they choose to push the limits of human possibility is highly contentious, the Enhanced Games is not going away and will continue to disrupt the Olympic paradigm.

Whatever your opinion, banning violent eSports while the Enhanced Games looms reveals an IOC on the brink of irrelevance. The Olympics risks becoming a relic in the fast-paced, evolving world of competitive sports.

It’s too easy to relegate steroids and shooter games as a side-show distraction.

The Enhanced Games has closed its Series Seed funding with leading venture capitalists including  Apeiron Investment Group, PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. The money is there and the world is watching.

Equally, at the current growth rate, there will be over 285 million frequent viewers of esports worldwide, as well as some 291.6 million occasional viewers by the end of this year. (Source: Statista)

The sands are shifting and the Olympics must design for the consumers of tomorrow. Its audiences are no longer a catch-all couch-sitting media buy but a highly fragmented, mobile and nuanced world of sports, tech and game lovers who are pushing new limits. 

The coverage of Paris 2024’s “Games Wide Open” is set to be the most immersive in Olympic history, pushing broadcasting boundaries to get us closer to the stories of athletes, sports, the city and the host country. In many ways, it’s becoming more and more like immersive game-play.

To enhance storytelling, cinematic lenses will be used for the first time to draw viewers into the intensity of the sporting competition – capturing athletes’ emotions, fans’ reactions and the incredible atmosphere in the stands.

A combination of live data and new technologies will give fans a thrilling display of athletes’ performances in minute detail. Enhanced by dynamic, data-driven graphics and a multitude of camera angles for replays, the viewers' experience will be transformed, immersing them in their favourite sports and Olympic personalities.

 

The synergies with esports are striking.

In the US, 36% of esports fans say that they interact with esports personalities on a weekly basis, and 30% do so daily. One of the differences between traditional sports and esports is the closeness that fans feel with the players. Ultimately, they want to be closer to the action. Not just to watch, but to have a part to play. 

With these boundaries dissolving, this is a moment for the Olympic games to champion the wonderfully diverse needs and narratives of real and virtual competition and bring both worlds together for the benefit of all.  

With the Enhanced Games redefining human limits, technology bringing us closer to athletes, and a global gaming audience hungry for authenticity, the Olympics must embrace its "wide-open" mantra. It's time to honour the past while keeping pace with the future.