IOC chief Bach announces plans to introduce E-sports in Olympic Games

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announced announced plans to introduce Electronic Sports into the Olympic Games.

Speaking during his New Year's message address, Bach announced that plans were already in motion to have E-sports as part of Olympic Games in the succeeding events to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"Beyond the Olympic games Paris 2024 we are standing united for our mission to make the world a better place through sport.
"With our Olympic agenda 2025 plus, we are driving forward the digitalization of the Olympic movement.
"The digital revolution, in particular Artificial Intelligence and E-sports offer us huge opportunities and we need to seize them right now.
"This is why the IOC is studying the creation of Olympic E-sports games, an endeavour that has been embraced with enthusiasm," announced Bach.

At the same time, the IOC president welcomed the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in developing the sport.

"When it comes to AI, our 'change or be changed' imperative takes on a new meaning as we want to use the transformative power of AI to support athletes and to drive the development of sports.

"This about identifying talents, creating training methods, making tracking more objective and customizing the individual viewing experience of billions of Olympic fans," said Bach.

Kenya is one of the nations with a keen interest in the development after the government backed her bid to host the African E-sports Cup games back in November 2023.

The Cabinet Secretary for Sports Ababu Namwamba declared the ministry's full support for the initiative.