The International Olympic Committee announced plans to introduce the Olympic Virtual Series for baseball, cycling, rowing, sailing and motorsports.
While we can understand introducing digital versions of popular Olympic sports, the addition of virtual motorsports is an unexpected–although interesting–move for the IOC.
Specifically, the Olympic Virtual Series is meant to “mobilize virtual sport, esports and gaming enthusiasts all around the world …
So who is signing up to qualify? J.G.?
Prepare to qualify.
Weird, perhaps kind of cool. But Gran Turismo? That's a bummer on the choice of software.
AaronT said:Weird, perhaps kind of cool. But Gran Turismo? That's a bummer on the choice of software.
100% my feelings as well. If it was one of the platforms used by the major sanctioning bodies currently (mostly iRacing or Assetto Corsa), I'd be really excited about going for it. I mean, there's like a .1% chance I'd get lucky enough to backdoor in somehow, but just to say I took part would be cool. But having to enter a whole other ecosystem that really doesn't carry over to my other sim racing seems cumbersome to me.
Still... maybe I dust off that PS4 just to be able to tell my wife that I can't do yardwork because I have important Olympic Training...
I'm sorry, no matter how you slant this, SIM racing is NOT an Olympic sport. Next we'll be including Tiddly Winks and Checkers, give me a break.
I understand that SIM requires a great amount of skill, but it's just not a true athletic endeavor, unless compared to sofa spudding.
Sounds like we're getting into "participation trophies" at a much grander scale.
Has the most recent GT been released yet?
In my humble opinion, worth exactly what you're paying for it, no combination of sim racing, auto racing, or other e-sports (with the possible exceptions of "ergometer" type stuff like rowing and cycling) have any business with the IoC or vice versa.
There are sports which are real sports but which do not fit the sort of pure athleticism which is what the Olympics are about. To me. Sim racing isn't remotely athletic enough, and real auto racing is too much about equipment.
Duathlon type thing? Sim racing with a Le Mans start that's 5k long? I could try to dream up a way it could work, but my firm feeling is that it's just wrong. You can have international championships in anything you want, but it's not appropriate to do an Olympic version of every form of competition on Earth.
In reply to 300zxfreak :
Agreed.
Was just having a conversation earlier about how to involve more people in Motorsports and IMO the core problem is growing up with a screen constantly in your face. This is very evident on kids but easy to see in adults too. It has become the norm that "I must be entertained" and disappointingly the norm of that is "I'll do whatever is easiest/least amount of effort on my part". The large majority now days would rather sit on the couch than "go out" to do something fun. Some people literally have to be dragged to an event or outside activity just to realize that "oh this is fun". So I'm not sorry in saying that virtual Olympics is BS. It has always been about what the human body is capable of, not what pressing some buttons can do. This feels more like the Olympics trying to cash in.
I did not know there were sims of sailing, rowing, and cycling.
Rowing and cycling could be interesting. I'm thinking exercise machines hooked up to VR. Sailing and baseball sound boring. I guess for all of the above you could add a hurricane into the sim.
I was half expecting Street Fighter to be the first video game added to the olympics. I read somewhere that by your late 20s your thumbs lose the dexterity to be in the international level tournaments.
^^ VV<><>BA (start)
Look cheating has always been part of the Olympics, don't hate the player, hate the game. (That PT Cruiser does look kinda like Ben Johnson in 1988).
This is a good opportunity to say that one of my kids is training for the 2024 Olympics. He qualified for the Tokyo gong show but was not quite fast enough since he is only 18. We figured it was just as well to miss this one.
Jesse Ransom said:In my humble opinion, worth exactly what you're paying for it, no combination of sim racing, auto racing, or other e-sports (with the possible exceptions of "ergometer" type stuff like rowing and cycling) have any business with the IoC or vice versa.
I absolutely, 100% do not want to see virtual cycling in the Olympics. Stuff like Zwift is a training tool and nothing more. The Olympics already has bike racing, it's called bike racing and it happens on the roads or the track. Zwift is much closer to a glorified exercise test.
Similarly, I love sim racing. I've spent a not-exactly-GRM sum setting up my rig, but it's still not motor racing. It should not influence the championship of any irl racing league, unless you count feeding drivers into seat 'influence'.
In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :
That is way cool. What sport?
Sorta related, a close friend moved into the Olympic training facility this past weekend. Fingers crossed for Tokyo.
In reply to AaronT :
I agree. I just think virtual cycling is less insane than straight up sim racing or video games since it's actually still an athletic comparison.
j_tso said:I did not know there were sims of sailing, rowing, and cycling.
Rowing and cycling could be interesting. I'm thinking exercise machines hooked up to VR.
That's pretty much right, but VR is overstating it. It's a common training tool, as it's easy to get hubs or pedals with power meters and which talk to a device. Zwift is the most popular of the VR-esque applications.
For the most part, it's just putting out power, not really much other interaction. I guess they've got got steering-input devices now, but that just seems like useless gimmickry to me.
I was playing a sailing sim on my dad’s 386 back in 1988, along with Indianapolis 500. Didn’t know I’ve been in training all these years.
But I agree with most here. They are not physical endeavors. Mental, yes, but not physical.
The new GT has been delayed.... and might release about the time of the Olympics... so...
But yes, not a great choice of platform (except for the likely kickback happening... no, the Olympics would NEVER do anything like that...)
There are at least a few here that I know that could be in contention.
aircooled said:There are at least a few here that I know that could be in contention.
I will nominate Spool, Matt and TJ.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
He is a swimmer. Distance freestyle.
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