The first eSports Olympics will take place in Saudi Arabia in 2025
For the first time in history, the IOC voted to establish Esports OlympicsThe first Olympics will take place in Saudi Arabia in 2025. [Thanks, Dexterto!]
The event will run for twelve years, with regular events in between. The IOC has considered creating an Olympic esports game in 2023, asking the IOC esports Commission to look into the logistics and such that would be involved. Indeed, in 2023, esports event At the Olympics there were games like Tic Tac Palace, Just JumpAnd Tennis Clashnot an actual esports game. Now that the Olympics (for real) will be taking place in Saudi Arabia, the IOC will start working on logistics like host cities, venues, timing, and qualifying procedures.
Quotes from the likes of HRH Prince Abudalaziz bin Turki Al Faisal (Minister of Sports and President of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee) and HRH Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud point out that Saudi Arabia in particular has a rich history of esports with millions of gamers (nearly half of whom are female). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is seeing a strong growth in sports in general, especially with women becoming more active in areas such as esports, golf, equestrian, etc. “There are currently more than 330,000 registered female athletes and nearly 40 women’s national teams competing internationally.” There is also equality in pay when it comes to male and female athletes.
On paper, it all sounds great. But the IOC, even a year before the 2024 Paris Olympics, finds itself once again in a difficult position with corruption allegations and security concerns. These occur almost every Olympicssuch as in 2016 and the year 2021. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is also “worst of the worst” when it comes political and civil rightsCrown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke in a Fox News Interview 2023 that he would continue to “play sports” if it could increase the Kingdom’s GDP by 1%. Sportswear washing is the bleaching of the country’s international image through heavy investment in sports.
More details about the Olympic eSports Games will be updated in the future.
