The next Olympics will be the debut of four new disciplines and many technological innovations that will accompany the event
From 23 July, the XXXII edition of the Olympic Games will be kicked off, which will be held in Tokyo and will end on 8 August. This will be the Olympics of the debut of four new disciplines and many technological innovations that will accompany the review of electric cars and robots that will support fans and athletes, but not only. Among the many innovations, eSport also appears, which will debut shortly before the Games.
Five Olympic disciplines in the form of a video game
Olympic Virtual Series: this is the eSport review that will be staged shortly before the many awaited Japanese Olympics. Thanks to the fruitful collaboration between various virtual sports federations and the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Virtual Series represent the first real step towards the recognition of eSports as sporting disciplines in all respects. In Italy we have already learned about eSports thanks to the victory last year of our eFoot national team, which in spite of the odds in football betting, had taken home the title of European PES champion by beating Serbia in the final. Now the time has come for the big leap, with the temporal and conceptual approach to one of the largest and most famous sporting events in the world.
Motoring, cycling, sailing, rowing and baseball
2021 is the year of the long-awaited Tokyo Olympics, the second edition organized in Japan after 1964. This year’s Olympic Games will see the debut of four new disciplines, following the directives of the Committee, for which the organizing country can propose up to four new sports: karate, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing will therefore be part of the Olympic review for the first time in its history, but this is not the only novelty. The growing digitalization that touches all sides of the globe, and the increase in consensus on eSports, have led to considering virtual disciplines as Olympic sports. It had already been widely talked about in the two years preceding the organization of the Tokyo Games and the confirmation also comes from Paris 2024, even if the virtual disciplines do not yet meet all the requirements to officially participate in the Olympic Games. The compromise found between the national federations of the various eSports and the International Olympic Committee, however, tends clearly towards an opening to digital. In fact, if they are not officially part of the sports involved in the Olympic Games or in Tokyo 2020 or in Paris 2024, there will be many demonstrations and performances in the Olympic context.
We then start with the game Gran Turismo for what concerns motoring, Zwift for cycling, and then again Virtual Regatta for sailing. However, the reference videogame for rowing has not yet been announced for the Olympic Virtual Games which will be held from May to June and whose calendars and results will be available on the official website of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. A huge step towards eSports, a trend in net growth and that links sport and digital.