THOSE who have been glued to the TV watching the winter Olympics have been treated to an amazing spectacle of strength, bravery and skill.
All of the disciplines involved offer excitement and it’s fair to say that the seven new ones introduced for 2022 fit in really well and add that special little something that makes viewing compulsory.
The one question I ask myself is when will the programme become saturated and if that becomes the case and it is by necessity one in, one out, are we in danger of losing the heart of the Olympics – some of the more traditional sports, summer and winter? Is there an argument for another world competition to be set up in the interim years to cater for the growth in new sports?
The reason this came to my mind was that I was reading about the fact that pillow fighting could be introduced into the Olympics. It is a recognised sport and its popularity is increasing.
PFC – or Pillow Fight Championship – is gaining an audience through pay-per-view television and is offering prize money to the competitors.
But where does training take place? Do you just have a quick pillow fight with your partner before you pop into to bed at night and job done?
Some of the other new sports I have read about recently are Drone Soccer, Robot Soccer, Drone Racing, Speedgate, Segway Polo and eSkootr racing and a lot of these are pulling in some good crowds.
In fact, the first Commonwealth Esports Championships is taking place this year in Birmingham and will be held at the same time as the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which also being hosted by the city.
The introduction of new technology into sport is interesting and as well as offering an alternative pastime to the many people who shy away from traditional sports, it is also delivering some benefits to those who participate in the more established and traditional sports, enabling quicker, faster participation and allowing athletes’ recovery to speed up, which helps them get back to full fitness for the next challenge.
I feel also that, focused in the right direction, this technology will offer a lot of people with a disability to participate in sport. I think this is a really interesting and debatable topic and currently Scottish Women is Sport is looking at this as a possible theme for our 2022 conference.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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