In this series, the team reflect on what the Olympics mean for NZ ag.
Every four years, our family dinner table morphs into the International Olympic Committee boardroom. The topic up for debate: which sports “feel Olympicy” enough to step into the global spotlight, and which don’t.
It’s always a chaotic discussion. Full of flip-flops, inconsistencies and flagrant exceptions for our favourite sports. It’s messy and I love it.
To bring a little order to the verbal judo, we quickly turned to Uncle Google for some ground rules. How do the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and host cities actually determine which codes make the cut?
In short, there are three broad requirements a sport has to meet. There’s the functional, straightforward stuff like logistical feasibility, rules to judge by and the chance for all nations and people to legitimately have a go.
Then the powers that be consider popularity, global reach, heritage and the sport’s long-term trajectory as an Olympic code. Also relatively straightforward.
It’s the last requirement that got tongues wagging. New Olympic sports need to “uphold the integrity and enhance the image of the Olympics” and “adhere to the Olympic values”. Open another bottle. We’ll be here a while.
So the duel begins, each of us taking aim at the many inconsistencies that make up the modern Games.
Like, how is basketball an Olympic sport? It has its own World Cup (which itself lives in the shadow of the NBA), so doesn’t need the Olympics to serve as the pinnacle of the sport. That said, it’s pretty hard to look past the 20-million Americans who watched this year’s final – more than double United States viewership for the men’s 100m final. Or the game’s massive and growing popularity around the world. The Olympics is big bucks – not just for the IOC, sponsors and host cities, but the media and hospitality spots who depend on it.
Or sport climbing. Although only started in the 1980s and has a small following even today, it was a surprise fan favourite, beating out long-time stars like athletics and sailing in Google search traffic. So much for heritage and popularity, but in this case a risk worth taking.
Or pistol shooting or archery. Can you have athletic integrity without raising your heart rate? Does that matter when both codes generated two of the most meme-worthy stars of the 2024 games – making the competition more relevant for the TikTok generation?
Cricket is set to return in 2028 in the T20 format. I’m not sure how the KFC Big Bash fits with Olympic integrity, but we’ll see.
Heard of flag football? I hadn’t until now. Set to debut in 2028, this non-contact version of American gridiron has only US and Canadian professional leagues, but is growing rapidly in other Western countries. It actually looks like a lot of fun, but is soured by whispers that NFL lobbying efforts have put it in play for 2028. Not great for “enhancing the image” of the hallowed Games.
As we parried arguments, and attempted to draw longer and longer bows, the family finally synchronised. No one wants the extremes. The Games shouldn’t stay tethered wholly to the ancient traditions – frankly, that would be boring and devalue the human achievement in new sports. But there must be limits too – no one wants a repeat of the 1912-1948 years when painting, sculpture, and architecture were medal-worthy pursuits. That’s just weird.
It was decided that the IOC’s approach to new sports is probably about right. Accept that the process is going to be messy but keep trying bold new stuff with the original values firmly in view. Retaining the right to U-turn helps in a pinch too. If there is a lesson for NZ ag in Olympic sport selection, it’s probably that.
So what about e-sports (competitive video gaming)? Our parting shot of the evening was to evaluate this strange new contender for the Olympic spotlight. Surprisingly, e-sports ticks a lot of Olympic boxes. It’s massively popular and globally accessible – promising to expand the Olympic pull to younger generations. It has a qualification and rules structure that could fit the Games, but lacks a pinnacle event that the Olympics could well provide.
It feels counter-intuitive, but the code has plenty of traditional athletic achievement elements – player’s heart-rates hit 180+ beats per minute (on par with motor-racing drivers and necessitating plenty of gym time) – and teamwork, training and hand-eye reflexes are paramount. While it lacks a long-standing heritage, it’s not much younger than sport climbing, BMXing or skateboarding.
On paper, it’s hard to argue that e-sports doesn’t deserve a spot. But it doesn’t quite feel “Olympicy”, does it? Maybe the next generation will argue differently.
