If so then any board game players should be considered athletes aswell.. Esport is a joke

That would be an insult to all athletes that dedicated years to pushing their bodies to the absolute limit and made actual efforts to do something.

As much as I don't care for sports, I see the amount of effort and suffering they go through to make it to the pros, while gamers.... not so much.

Bureaucratic nonsense.  They give them an athlete's visa because of its functionality, not because they're athletic.

To say pro gamers are athletes is to say gaming is an athletic activity.  To say gaming is an athletic activity is to encourage a sedentary lifestyle, leading to many health problems.  If you want to be considered a true athlete, you've got to do something with your body, not your mind.  The mind is the most important part of us, of course, but it is supported by a healthy body.  Gaming is not athletic.

They're entertainers -- not athletes.

If pro-gamers wish to try and justify their career choice by labeling themselves athletes while they sit on their arse all day, they can but their problem isn't the fact people don't recognise them as athletes, it's that people don't recognise it as a credible career choice. Trying to claim they are athletes is just hurting this. If pro-gaming is to be considered a career (whether in tournaments or youtube videos), the pro-gamers needs to realise it doesn't matter what they are classed as and just be happy to be able to make money from something like playing games.

I'm pretty sure the world Monopoly Champion doesn't consider themselves an athlete.

Besides, the US government doesn't govern the world and according to the US government, a corporation is a person so...

Lol push their limits? That's why dumbass jocks inject themselves with steroids. Regular sports are more of a joke.