He
and this KN Explains is all about me in 20 years.
That's right, they finally decided to do this.
So where will I be?
Maybe broadcasting the
Participating in a new sports competition,
if it ever shows up?
I'm pretty sweet at 2K, or you know what,
maybe the first broadcaster slash Olympian
combo and--
Jimmy:
Sorry, what was that, Jimmy?
Come again?
Jimmy:
not the future of Arjun, just
Oh, oh, well, my bad then.
That still seems like a pretty cool topic.
Let's do it.
I'm Arjun Ram and this is KN Explains,
the
♪ [light]
OK, let me set it up for you.
We're going to take a look at what the
could look like in 20 years by visiting the past,
then the future and back to the present.
It is often said that history repeats itself,
repeats itself, repeats itself,
and that the past can be a window into the future.
So with that in mind, let's take a look at some
of the biggest changes that have happened
since the
You know, time it is... it's timeline time.
Queue it up.
The first modern
Greece, and it looked really different than
the Olympics of today.
There were only 43 events.
Compare that to the 339 total events at the
and it's easy to see more than a few events have been added
in that time,
but they don't just add events,
they also remove them,
and there's one in particular that has caught my attention.
Making its debut in 1900, tug of war was an event
up until 1920, after which it was removed.
I mean, I remember playing tug of war at family picnics,
and I was pretty good, pre-COVID that is.
Kind of hoping they bring that one back.
Arjun, Olympic tug of war champion,
has a nice ring to it. OK, sorry timeline designer.
I need to zip back to 1900, but I promise it's for
an important reason.
These were the first
A total of 22 women competed across five events.
Compare that to Beijing 2022, where an estimated 45 percent
of the approximately 2,800 athletes are women,
and that number has grown.
If I could do that quickly in my head
and I'm pretty good at math, that's approximately
1,274 women competing.
That's a big jump from 22.
OK and one last thing. Outside of the events,
Even getting to the
in the past.
In 1924, American athletes took a boat to the
in France, and the trip took nine days.
Now what, they like, hop on a flight that
maybe takes 12 to 16 hours, depending on the location?
I mean, jet lag can be a bummer, but it beats nine days at sea.
So with time in mind, let's take a trip to the future
to the
♪ ♪
Hey, folks, and welcome to the
That's right. My name is Arjun Ram
and I'll be your
broadcasting to you live from the Metaverse.
OK, first up, I want to highlight some of the key new
events that are being featured at these
We got e-sports in full force.
That's right. Get your gaming fix right here.
We got some of the best streamers and gamers
from across the world, competing for some
of that
That's right, they're NFTs.
Each athlete can choose to receive their prize
either through a hard drive with their medal
or through digital transfer, and taking place right here
in the metaverse, we have the debut
of the virtual reality watching channels.
You want a front row seat at your favourite event?
Or how about taking a ride with your favourite athlete
via a helmet camera?
VR will take you there, and I should mention travel
to these
in instant teleportation technologies.
No more planes, just hop in your teleporter
and you are right there,
and don't forget to tune in to the
We got athletes vs. robots,
robotically enhanced athletes and athletically
enhanced robots.
So without a further ado, let's kick off the
OK, that was fun, and while imagining
what the future could look like is one thing,
some of the stuff I mentioned could be a part
of the
I spoke to Eoin Connolly, a sportswriter and podcaster.
When it comes to e-sports at the
Owen thinks...
What's inevitable is that there's going to be a bigger
crossover between the
And that crossover has already started.
Just before the
the
where video games like
were played.
Hmm, maybe testing the waters there,
I see you, I see you.
In virtual reality, while there could be events
in VR, Owen said the
change the way that we watch the
They've done experiments with virtual reality
in the last couple of
will depend on millions and millions of people
wanting to watch it in virtual reality,
and at the moment, that's not quite there yet,
but that could, that could change
in the next few years.
And speaking of watching, Jan Kees Mons,
a sports broadcaster and Olympic futurist,
thinks that holograms could become a major part
of the viewing experience.
In the future, holographic technology
will, ah, will take care of a sporting event.
If you see a speed skater, you can go to your local
stadium, so it's not only confined to the rink in Beijing,
it can go also, see it at local rink.
You will hear the same sounds and same things,
which are at that, at that moment
taking place in Beijing.
A hologram of a live event across the world,
live in your home arena? Sounds far fetched,
but remember, holograms are already being used
in live concerts, often to bring back artists
who have long since died.
And outside of new events and how we watch,
Eoin thinks technologies like robotics could be used...
..to help people understand in training
and high performance, how, how they can perform better
and how they can compete better.
But it might not be us using robotics to perform better.
Researchers could use events like the
..to understand how the body moves and efficiency,
and stuff like that, and developing robotic
prototypes that can achieve certain tasks more comfortably.
Jan Kees thinks there might be a space
for robotics in
You'll probably have two kinds of competitions,
on one end, competition with real humans,
and on the other end you'll have competitions
with advanced humans, as they, as I call them.
Nice. Back to the past.
I mean, back to the present.
I mean... back to now. 2022.
Got it!
People are calling for change right now.
It can be expensive for a city to host the
Take these
where only two cities bid for hosting duties.
Beijing, China and Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Moshe Lander is a sports economist and professor
at Concordia University, and he thinks this is because...
The big misconception is that the
are a money maker and the fact is that they're not.
The economics look really, really bad for the
as they're currently constructed,
and that's why nobody seems to want it anymore.
So what could the solution look like?
There is an idea for one location to host all future
Olympics or a more hybrid approach where...
If we can have it in multiple locations,
maybe we can use existing infrastructure.
The idea is to use what we already have,
like alpine skiing, for example,
hosted in a location with natural hills or mountains,
with good conditions for snow, because according to Moshe...
The fact is that there's very few cities that have that
ability to offer one stop shopping.
So sharing it out among multiple cities
or multiple countries allows you to at least say,
look, we have the arenas for these events,
you have the arenas for those events.
He also suggests breaking up the schedule
from every four years to...
If we can have it in multiple cities, then why couldn't we
conceivably have it at multiple times?
So holding
Interesting motion.
[pop, swoosh]
And what about a big change we already know
is going to happen.
Now, when I think about the
I think about athletes with their flags, and big crowds
cheering, and large stadiums, and fireworks.
Well, in 2024 at the
a lot of that is going to look really different.
The opening ceremonies will take place outside a stadium
and will take on a parade like approach down the Seine,
the river that runs through the heart of Paris.
Organizers say they're taking it outside of the stadium
to make the ceremony as accessible to as many people
as possible.
No one really knows what changes might happen by 2042,
but if it's anything like past changes in
we can expect some pretty interesting stuff.
And that's it for
For
Imagining the future of the
but I'm really glad I had these people to help me out.
Eoin Connolly is a sports writer and podcaster
based in the UK, who has written articles
on the future of the
Jan Kees Mons is a sports broadcaster
from the Netherlands, who has also written about
the future of the
and Moshe Lander is a sports economist
at Concordia University.
I also referenced the following sites for information;
CBC, olympics.com, CBC Sports,
♪ ♪