Olympic Esports Series facts for kids
The Olympic Esports Series is a cool event that's a bit like the Olympic Games, but for esports (competitive video gaming)! It happens every year and brings together different virtual sports and video games in one place. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which runs the real Olympics, is in charge of it.
Even though competitive video gaming wasn't always seen as a traditional sport, the Olympic world started noticing it way back in 2007. That's when esports was part of the 2007 Asian Indoor Games. In 2017, the IOC held a big meeting about esports. After a special online event called the Olympic Virtual Series in 2021 (because of the COVID-19 pandemic), the IOC decided to create the Olympic Esports Series in November 2022. The very first one was held in Singapore in June 2023, and another one is planned for 2024!
The games played at the Olympic Esports Series are connected to traditional Olympic sports. This is because the video games are chosen by the groups that manage those sports worldwide. You'll see a mix of games where you do a physical sport in a virtual world, like Zwift for cycling, and also sports-based video games like Gran Turismo for racing. Some people have said that the Olympic Esports Series doesn't include popular esports games and instead uses lesser-known games that represent traditional Olympic sports.
Unlike the main Olympic Games, players don't win medals or special certificates called diplomas. Instead, the top three players in each event get cool gold-, silver-, and bronze-coloured trophies!
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How the Olympic Esports Series Started
Traditional esports games like Counter-Strike, Dota, League of Legends, and Valorant have been thought of as "too violent" to be part of an Olympic-style competition. The IOC held a meeting in October 2017 to think about adding esports to the Olympic world. Another meeting happened in July 2018. However, there wasn't one big group that managed all of esports, which is something the IOC needs for a sport to be recognized. Also, the issue of violence in some games meant the IOC wouldn't add esports to the main Olympic Games.
Other big sports events, like the Asian Games and the Southeast Asian Games, do include esports as a medal event. Esports first appeared at a major event at the 2007 Asian Indoor Games. It will become a full medal event at the 2022 Asian Games (which were held in 2023).
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 Summer Olympics to be moved to 2021, the IOC launched its first esports event. It was called the Olympic Virtual Series and happened in 2021. The sports included were baseball, cycling, motorsport, rowing, and sailing. Four of these sports later returned for the Olympic Esports Series in 2023.
A second Olympic Virtual Series was planned for 2022, but it didn't happen. Instead, it was replaced by the Olympic Esports Series.
Winners of the 2021 Olympic Virtual Series
Here are the winners from the first Olympic Virtual Series in 2021:
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseball home run derby |
Ryohei Osaka Japan |
Yusuke Tominaga Japan |
Hiroki Horiike Japan |
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| Baseball tournament finals |
Syoma Mori Japan |
Yoshinori Kato Japan |
Yosuke Fujimoto Japan |
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| Cycling ultimate chase race |
Alistair Brownlee Great Britain |
Lucy Charles-Barclay Great Britain |
John Kariuki Kenya |
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| Motorsport |
Valerio Gallo Italy |
Mikail Hizal Germany |
Baptiste Beauvois France |
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| Rowing |
 Colombia |
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| Sailing inshore - nacra 17 |
Arthur Farley Great Britain |
Bart Lambriex Netherlands |
Joan Cardona Spain |
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| Sailing inshore - ILCA dinghy |
Kaan Mazlumca Turkey |
Filippo Lanfranchi Italy |
Gaéten de Kat France |
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| Sailing inshore - 49er |
Lukas Mohr Denmark |
Arthur Farley Great Britain |
Tangi Le Golf France |
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| Sailing offshore |
Erik Danielsson Sweden |
Christopher Powers United States |
Luiz Carlos Bonetti Brazil |
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The 2023 Olympic Esports Week
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| Host city | Singapore, Singapore |
|---|---|
| Motto | Play Beyond Possible |
| Organisers | International Olympic Committee, Singapore National Olympic Council |
| Edition | 1st |
| Athletes | 131 from 57 nations |
| Events | 10 in 10 sports, plus 6 exhibition events across 5 video game titles |
| Opening | 22 June 2023 |
| Closing | 25 June 2023 |
| Opened by | President of Singapore Halimah Yacob |
| Main venue | Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre |
In November 2022, the IOC announced that the first-ever Olympic Esports Week would be held in Singapore in June 2023. This event would include the live finals of the 2023 Olympic Esports Series. The first nine games and sports were announced on March 1, 2023. A tenth event, shooting (using Fortnite), was added on May 5.
The first Olympic Esports Series finals happened in person from June 23 to 25, 2023, in Singapore. They were held at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre. This was part of the first Olympic Esports Week, which started a day earlier on June 22 with an opening ceremony.
At the opening ceremony, both the IOC president, Thomas Bach, and the President of Singapore, Halimah Yacob, appeared remotely (meaning they weren't there in person). Halimah, who was on a special trip to Qatar at the time, officially opened the Olympic Esports Week in her speech.
About 131 finalists took part in the Olympic Esports Week. There were ten events in ten different Olympic sports. Trophies were also given out for an eleventh event that was held completely online. The sports included were archery, baseball, chess, cycling, dance, motorsport, sailing, shooting, taekwondo, and tennis. The game chosen for each sport was suggested by the international sports group for that sport, working with the game's maker. However, for Fortnite in shooting, Epic Games (the game's maker) said they weren't involved in the choice.
Eight Olympians (athletes who have competed in the main Olympic Games) took part in the taekwondo event. These included Wu Jingyu from China, who won a bronze trophy. Other famous athletes from different countries also competed.
The chess event also featured nine grandmasters (very high-level chess players) and one female International Master. This event was special because it was the first IOC-approved event where Russian athletes, Maksim Chigaev and Aleksandr Rakhmanov, competed as "individual neutral athletes." This meant they competed without representing their country's flag, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. They even competed alongside a Ukrainian player, Oleksandr Bortnyk.
The event was very popular, with about 20,000 people coming to watch at the Suntec Convention Centre over the four days.
Trophy Winners of the 2023 Olympic Esports Series
Here are the trophy winners from the 2023 Olympic Esports Series:
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archery |
Jared Montgomery United States |
David Chan United States |
Kyosuke Takebayashi Japan |
| Baseball |
Shoma Mori Japan |
Hiroki Horiike Japan |
Wang Chia-Ming Chinese Taipei |
| Chess |
Aleksey Sarana Serbia |
Maksim Chigaev Individual Neutral Athletes |
Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn Vietnam |
| Cycling |
Team Fuego Martin Maertens (GER) James Barnes (RSA) Lou Bates (GBR) Marlene Bjärehed (SWE) |
Team Epic Ben Hill (AUS) Michał Kamiński (POL) Jacquie Godbe (USA) Charlotte Colclough (GBR) |
Team Lava Teppo Laurio (FIN) Lionel Vujasin (BEL) Alice Lethbridge (GBR) Kong Lam (HKG) |
| Dance |
Amandine Morisset France |
Joseph Cordero United States |
Antonino Pomilia Italy |
| Motorsport |
Kylian Drumont France |
William Murdoch Great Britain |
Angel Inostroza Chile |
| Sailing inshore |
Tim Carpentier France |
Cavan Fyans Great Britain |
Francisco Melo Portugal |
| Sailing offshore |
Baptiste Renaut France |
Xavier Coquard France |
Aurélie Martin France |
| Shooting |
Lucas Malissa Australia |
Alexander Feyzjou United States |
Andrej Piratov Latvia |
| Taekwondo |
Nigel Tan Singapore |
Natalie Tor Singapore |
Wu Jingyu China |
| Tennis |
Anass Benghazi France |
He Shenghao China |
William Foster Great Britain |
Special Exhibition Events
Besides the ten main events of the Olympic Esports Series, the 2023 Olympic Esports Week also had some special "exhibition events." These are like demonstration sports, showing off other popular esports games. They included Rocket League, Street Fighter 6, and NBA 2K23. There were also virtual versions of Arena Games Triathlon (a mix of running and cycling) and Virtual Table Tennis.
In Rocket League, there were two show matches. One was for men, won by Karmine Corp, and one for women, won by Williams Resolve. The Street Fighter 6 event was a tournament where players were eliminated after two losses. It was won by Thum Homchuen from Thailand. A famous Street Fighter player, Hajime Taniguchi (also known as Tokido), also competed. The NBA 2K23 event was a round-robin (everyone played everyone else) with no official winner. Teams from the Philippines, Brazil, and Türkiye competed.
The Future of Olympic Esports
After the first event in Singapore, the IOC's head of virtual sports, Vincent Pereira, said that Paris (which is hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics) would get the first chance to host the Olympic Esports Series in 2024 if they wanted to. However, Singapore also showed interest in hosting again. Other cities like Seoul (South Korea), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), New York City, and Shenzhen (China) also showed interest.
Even though some people want more traditional esports games, the IOC plans to keep games like first-person shooters (FPS) out of the Olympic Esports Series in the future. This is what Pereira said.
Some games that were exhibition events in 2023, like Rocket League, the Street Fighter series, and the NBA 2K series, might be added as main events in the future.
However, it's not likely that esports will become a full medal sport at the main Olympic Games very soon. Even though esports has medal status at the Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games, and there are world championships for virtual versions of traditional sports (like the Esailing World Championship), the IOC's Pereira said that "they're two different worlds."
In June 2024, the IOC announced that they would create a brand new event called the Olympic Esports Games. The IOC will vote on this idea during the 2024 Summer Olympics. In July 2024, it was announced that the very first 2025 Olympic Esports Games would be held in Saudi Arabia.
