Could Triathlon eSports qualify for Olympic inclusion?

Is it only a matter of time before the inclusion of Triathlon eSports into the Olympic programme happens? This is not to say that eSports is to compete or supersede triathlon as we know it, moreover, the aim will be to deliver new energy and entertainment to the sport relevant to the next ‘digital age’ generation.

This is not so far-fetched as it sounds. The Olympic Programme Commission who holds responsibility of analysing the programme of sports for the Games highlight on the Olympic Agenda 2020, one of the core responsibilities is to:

• Ensure the Olympic programme remains relevant to young people by ensuring innovation and adapting to modern taste and new trends, while respecting the history and tradition of the sports;

furthermore, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) updated its stance on esports following the 8th Olympic Summit 2019, where it discussed the rapid development of esports and the current involvement of various Olympic Movement stakeholders, concluding: 

• “eSports” are showing strong growth, especially within the youth demographic across different countries, and can provide a platform for engagement with the Olympic Movement.

and probably more importantly, agreeing that:

• Competitive “eSports” could be considered as a sporting activity.

This is a far-cry from the negative stance taken back in 2018, where the 7th Olympic Committee Summit made clear that eSport inclusion into the Games was premature as: 

• the industry is commercially-driven, while on the other hand the sports movement is values-based.

That defence will fall on deaf-ears within the eSports industry as it is hard to argue that the sports movement is solely values-based and not commercially-driven when it has been established by EU law notably articles 81/82 that sports “constitutes an economic activity”. It would be to deceive not to acknowledge that the chances of obtaining inclusion in the Olympic programme appear to increase drastically for a sport if that particular sport can demonstrate that it will increase the commercial opportunities for the Games. As eSport popularity grows, value is affirmed. When value is affirmed, that enables it to increase. The world of eSports is a pubescent one where it’s quickly developing into a more mature phenomenon. A very good sign that this is something worth investing in for the future is how niche it remains despite its gross revenue and increasing notoriety. It’s creating its own sub-market, in a way.

In the past, it may have appeared entirely unrealistic that eSports would be included in the Olympic Games when in 2017, the 9th President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, told the South China Morning Post, he wanted to draw a clear line, alluding to virtual reality gaming being “about violence, explosions and killing”, ​suggesting that popular video games do not align with “Olympic values”, seemingly oblivious to different gaming communities existing other than first person shooters. But those days and misguided ideas are long gone. With the young millennials eschewing traditional forms of sport and media coverage and therefore eluding the Games sponsors and advertisers the Olympic Movement is very much aware that it needs to adapt to start attracting a younger audience. It is of no coincidence that of the additional sports added to the 2020 Summer Olympics programme, skateboarding, climbing and surfing are very popular with younger generation viewers.

But will the inclusion of new sports suffice, particularly in the light of viewing figures for the Olympic Games dropping some 15% during the Rio Games compared to the London Games even though audiences had more access to Olympic TV coverage than ever before, 125,000 hours of output plus digital coverage. Now compare that with one ‘live stream’ virtual reality eSport game “League of Legends” in 2019 that had 137 million hours of viewership and drew in an audience of 60 million. It remains to be seen if the decline in Olympic viewing figures continues to decline and the impact on advertising revenues and the price networks worldwide are willing to pay for Olympic rights.

But perhaps the most telling of all indicators of the future of eSport as an Olympic inclusion was at the 8th Olympic Summit 2019, where leading representatives of the Olympic movement met to form an ongoing consultation process on important issues of significance for the future of the Olympics, and raised a crucial step:

• With regard to electronic games simulating sports, the Summit sees great potential for cooperation and incorporating them into the sports movement.

The Summit inferred that a continuous dialogue between the Olympic Movement and eSports communities should be fostered to develop strategic partnerships, including platforms and events as appropriate. The representatives also agreed that guidelines for sustainable relationships between sports stakeholders and eSports communities should be developed.
The possible incorporation of eSports into the Olympic programme is reinforced by the fact that the multibillion-dollar video gaming industry has already succeeded in gaining inclusion in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang. Discussions have also been held to include esports as a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou and as a demonstration event at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. If your old enough to cast your minds back to the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, Triathlon was a demonstration event. Whatever happened to that sport!

It is hard to pin down a single metric that makes an eSport a success, conversely the numbers and the seemingly unstoppable cultural momentum eSports will continue to grow as an industry for the foreseeable future. By the end of 2020, two billion people will have some knowledge of eSports — that’s more than one fifth of the entire world’s population. So, if you haven’t heard much about eSports yet, give it time. Its spread, both globally and culturally, is inevitable.

 Will we ever see the inclusion of eSport Triathlon into the Olympics? Well, that will be down to the perceived benefit and the stakeholder’s appetite to drive it forward. Be under no illusions that this is all one-way traffic, eSports popularity with increased exposure, sponsor income and attracting bigger and younger crowds every year may well lead, in the long term, to the Olympics needing eSports and its fan demographics far more than eSports needs the Olympics.