Motorsports at the Olympics? 'Possible first step in 2024'

Time for motorsports at the Olympics

On Friday, the Winter Olympics start, but we won't see any motorsports or motorcycling there. Fortunately, the racing fan can switch to the Race of Champions, held in Sweden this year for the first weekend of the Games. After that, it's two weeks of sports in the snow without seeing a car or motorcycle, while that snow and the mountains lend themselves well to sports like motocross and rally racing. Also in the Summer Olympics, there are no motorsports, but why not? And isn't it about time there will be?

Although the Olympics have mythical origins and a focus on grand athletic achievement, we see examples in the near past that the organizers of the global sporting event are willing to experiment and innovate. For example, skateboarding and softball made their appearance at the last Games in Tokyo. There have also been previous experiments with auto racing in the past hundred years, but these were very long ago.

Olympic experiments

For example, in 1900 motor racing was part of the Games in France, examined Autoreview.com. France hosted both the Games and the Worl' Expo that year and combined the events. The fourteen car races held did count toward the Olympics, but the car builders got the medals and not the drivers. Although the winners received Olympic cups, the Olympic status of the sport was never endorsed. Another experiment was during the 1936 Games; British driver Beth Haig won the Olympic Rally in a Singer Le Mans.

With a possible entry of motor racing as an Olympic discipline, the focus should now be on the driver. Not only because it better suits the Olympic idea, but also because racing fans know that car racing is a human athletic achievement. For car manufacturers, it is also an opportunity, because racing will always be about money. In order to develop a fun and competitive Olympic discipline, one idea might be to have drivers compete against each other in exactly the same cars (following the example of the Race of Champions). The supplier of these cars can present a good business card to the whole world.

First steps towards motorsport discipline

In 2024, the organizers of the Olympic Games will look again at possible sporting new additions to the event. Motor.nl reports the first positive sounds about the entry of a motorsport discipline. The International Olympic Committee will presumably receive a proposal from the International Motorsport Federation, the FIM, to make E-trial an Olympic sport. It would be a small step, but a good start for auto and motorcycle racing. The developments in racing toward more electrically powered engines fit well with the Games' message of striving for a more sustainable world.

Motorsport seems to further meet the most important conditions set by the Committee for a sport to be part of the Olympic Games. These conditions are: It must be a sport for the youth, men and women must be able to participate, it must be sustainable and there must be a spectacle. Planning motorsports into the Olympics does take some work, as most racing classes have sprawling seasons across the year and around the world. But wouldn't it add an extra dimension to the racing world if drivers from all kinds of classes competed against each other in one or more disciplines?