Gran Turismo Sport will be featured at an official Olympic sanctioned event a few weeks before the Tokyo 2020 2021 Olympics.

The IOC is hosting an Olympic Virtual Series between May 13 and June 23. Five virtual competitions will be held representing different sports: baseball, cycling, rowing, sailing, and motorsport. Gran Turismo Sport will be representing the motorsport category. I wonder what other games will used.

This is notable because e-sports are getting some recognition by the Olympics. Even real motorsports have not been included in Olympics yet.

What do you think?

https://carbuzz.com/news/gran-turismo-is-now-an-official-olympic-sport

Fantastic. I hope it wouldn't be for just this Olympics but the next ones too.

So it’s not actually an official olympic sport.

It might be the only Olympics this year
https://www.foxsports.com.au/olympics/tokyo-olympics-2021-cancelled-coronavirus-covid19-toshiro-nikai-crowds/news-story/495941de5b1124293728d96a35ef8ec1
Too soon for a worldwide event, would be irresponsible to make it go through.

Anyway they better have some good stewards on duty because the FIA championships have turned into destruction derbies.

It is cool, but I don't think esports has any business being an official Olympic event, its a good showcase though.

I'll be the first to argue video gaming as a sport, but I don't think e-sports really fit in with the Olympics as the rest of the events are physical strength or endurance activities (though static shooting events & dressage I would also argue don't fit, while Curling at the winter Olympics is borderline IMO)

Ultimately I understand you cant keep everything strictly categorised (game-sports vs athletic events) as there will always be those borderline events wherever you draw the line, but if video-games are included, why isnt motorsport, or what about other game-sports like snooker or darts, or even chess.

I get impression alot of this is from Japanese government just trying to do whatever it can to hype "Brand Japan". Like they are also promoting Super Mario with the Olympics which is farcical, and I saw something about stunt pilot (aviation) involved in Olympic march despite that not being a real sport - sure, it's a skill, and competitive, but that's not a sport just like videogames aren't. But like somebody mentioned, who knows if real Olympics will actually happen due to COVID and Japanese mismanagement of that (not alone in that cateogory, of course). Even if it does formally "happen", it seems likely to be under conditions which few would consider a real Olympics.

Laughable playing games can be called a "sport"

They should just include Mario and Sonic at the Olympics and call it a day.

They are called demonstration sports and each host gets to pick a number of them, usually strong regional sports are chosen, plus, the IOC itself can and often does include sports that are under consideration for Olympic status, so it also acts as a test bed.

In this case like Twintail said it's more a separate Olympic sanctioned event.