Paris 2024 Olympics: The Games will die without young audiences and competitors - IOC

The IOC overhauled the process of adding sports to the Games a few years ago, getting rid of a seven-year wait period, and introduced a number of new sports for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

IOC Spokesperson Mark Adams during a press conference from Paris Olympics 2024. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

The introduction of new sports and more urban and visually spectacular venues are necessary to attract younger audiences to secure the Olympic Games’ survival, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday.

The IOC overhauled the process of adding sports to the Games a few years ago, getting rid of a seven-year wait period, and introduced a number of new sports for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, including surfing, sport climbing and skateboarding.

Paris Games organisers kept all three and added breakdancing to try to engage a younger audience and also open up new opportunities for sponsors and broadcasters.

“If we don’t get young people playing sport, we won’t be here for very much longer,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said.

“We have to attract young audiences and go where they are. We have to attract young people to sport or we are dead, basically.”

Many of these sports and other disciplines are being staged in central outdoor temporary venues in central Paris to bring them closer to the wider population, instead of holding them in traditional sports venues.

Basketball 3x3, skating and breaking are being held at La Concorde in the heart of the city. Marathon swimming and triathlon will use the River Seine flowing through central Paris -- pollution levels allowing -- while French Polynesia is hosting the surfing competition, providing a spectacular visual backdrop from the south Pacific.

“All of those sports, the formats, the way we present sports, we have to continue to change. It is change or be changed. We like to lead change and not be led by it.”

The IOC also recently signed a 12-year deal with Saudi Arabia to stage the esports Olympic Games in another move to tap into a younger audience and attract them eventually to the Olympics.

“We are getting involved in esports, that’s where younger people are and we need to find out what it is that drives them to that and how we can bring them the benefits of sports and combine the benefits of esports with sport,” Adams said.