2024 Olympics Could Add A Gaming Tournament

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris could feature video game competitions. The co-president of the Paris Olympic bid committee told the Associated Press that discussions will be held with people from competitive gaming circles and the International Olympic Committee to discuss the prospect of having gamers compete for Olympic Gold.

Tony Estanguet, the co-president of France's bid committee, told the AP that the gaming community deserves to at least be part of the discussion.

"We have to look at it because we can't say, 'It's not us. It's not about Olympics,'" Estanguet said. "The youth, yes they are interested in eSport and this kind of thing. Let's look at it. Let's meet them. Let's try if we can find some bridges.

"I don't want to say 'no' from the beginning," he added. "I think it's interesting to interact with the IOC, with them, the eSports family, to better understand what the process is and why it is such a success."

A list of events for the 2024 Games in Paris will begin to take form in 2019, while the official list of sports will be announced after the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

Paris has yet to be officially announced as the host of the 2024 games, but that's expected to happen in September. Los Angeles was in the mix as well, but it recently elected to host the event in 2028 instead.

In 2014, former Blizzard chief creative officer Rob Pardo said there is a very good argument to be made for gaming being a part of the Olympics. "I think the way that you look at eSports is that it's a very competitive skillset and you look at these professional gamers and the reflexes are lightning quick and they're having to make very quick decisions on the fly," he said. "When you look at their 'actions per minute', they're clearing over 300."

It sounds like it's still very early days for gaming joining the Olympics, so we don't know yet which games would be featured, what the format would be, or any other particulars.

What do you think? Should gaming be a part of the Olympics? Let us know in the comments below!