IOC President unsure whether e-sports should be in the Olympics
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach remains uncertain about the possibility of e-sports becoming an Olympic sport, he tells InsideTheGames.com.
E-sports will be a medal sport at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. This spurred debate as to whether medals would someday be on the line at the Games.
"We are not yet 100 per cent clear whether e-sports is really sport, with regard to physical activity and what it needs to be considered sport," Bach told Inside the Games."
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"We do not see an organization or a structure that will give us confidence, or guarantee, that in this area the Olympic rules and values of sport are respected and in place, and that the implementation of these rules are monitored and secured," he added. "There is no International Federation that has the necessary authority to give this guarantee and to restrict these activities to the values of sport...I can only give you a very personal remark, but some of these Games are contrary to all our values."
LA 2024 Olympic bid chairman Casey Wasserman is interested in e-sports joining the Olympic program.
"Harnessing the power of new technologies like virtual and augmented reality to promote healthy lifestyles will be a key objective as we seek to create a new Games for a new era in 2024," he said last year.
