For the primary post-COVID Olympics, the Paris 2024 Games could have some necessary changes. First of all, there will probably be no physical tickets for visitors. All tickets will probably be digital, but spectators should purchase an extra ticket individually. Paper souvenir ticket to your eventWhile this is basically a legacy of the COVID pandemic, it is usually an indication of the times because the Olympic Games increasingly move into the digital world.
Digging deeper, we see that the DNA of this transformation is a story about data and its proliferation – and that the Olympics’ ability to grow economically relies on it getting used and exploited. As AI continues to vary the strategic positioning of all points of life, the world of sport has rapidly launched into an analogous journey. AI now plays a Key role on the Olympics in lots of areas including performance evaluation, doping control, security threats, athlete comfort, sports reporting and broadcasting.
The Olympic Games have been quick to reply to the rapidly evolving technological environment. Gone are the times when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) talked concerning the impact of the Games when it comes to television rankings. Now it’s all concerning the Live views on all channelsand a looming presence at Paris 2024 is the prominence of TikTok, which itself drives an enormous amount of content for Olympic athletes. It is even a official partner of Team GB.
At a gathering before the opening ceremony, the IOC unanimously supported the creation of the Olympic Esports Gamesis ready to happen for the primary time in Saudi Arabia in 2025 and builds on five years of development of e-sports within the Olympic program. It will consist of competitions in well-known computer game formats comparable to Fornite, but additionally some recent game titles focused on traditional sports comparable to Taekwondo in virtual reality.
This recent event ends speculation about whether esports will ever make it into the Olympics. Set to happen every two years – when the Olympics and Winter Olympics aren't happening – it marks a serious shift in the best way the sporting world interacts with gaming and esports.
The basis for a lot of these changes is the IOC's realisation that the economic model underlying the Games must be further developed. 61% of television rights revenues and as the longer term of television appears increasingly uncertain, the IOC is banking on gaming and streaming platforms becoming a crucial a part of its future economy.
Another major innovation this 12 months was the creation of a ticket experience in Imax The opening ceremony took place in US cinemas, following the model of national theatres world wide.
These recent sorts of viewing experience could mark the top of the normal era of family television at home. Instead, viewers will probably be more more likely to watch alone on the pc or in large groups. Similar developments are also happening at other major events, from the Eurovision Song Contest to the European Championships.
This shift within the viewing experience has been driven over nearly twenty years by the rise of social media and, perhaps more importantly, the mobile viewing experience. With platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Meta driving tremendous activity amongst mobile viewers, the Olympic Movement has turn out to be increasingly reliant on its platforms to grow its audience.
In the run-up to this 12 months’s Olympic Games, some athletes used social media platforms to share the beginnings of their journey to Paris. This is the type of content that many fans desired to see – but were unable to see until now.
Will AI replace the human factor?
The IOC launched its Olympic AI Agenda in June. In Paris, AI is getting used to help with performance evaluation, which also raises the query of whether it may be used to evaluate sports. For example, could AI be higher in a position to scan a jump and judge its quality? These are a few of the applications being discussed at this Olympics, but there may be some disagreement about their use, amid fears that AI could replace human judgement on the sector.
AI has also been used to design personalized bedding for athletes within the Olympic Village, add color to old black-and-white archive footage from past Olympic Games, and create recent types of sports reporting – for instance, by utilizing AI-generated Results Stories and Comments.
While this alteration primarily contributes to greater openness and awareness of the Olympic Games, it also raises the deeper query of the role of skilled journalism within the making of sports history.
As more brands turn out to be concerned about anything negative of their industry and the variety of journalists on news agency payrolls declines, there are fears that the rise of technology-driven reporting may lead to a lack of independent, investigative journalism. This could have serious implications for ensuring fair coverage of events just like the Olympics.
Extending this development to AI could further exacerbate these fears and challenge the normal view of journalists as needed witnesses to historical events. These matters turn out to be much more concerning if it implies that officials overseeing such events usually are not adequately questioned to make sure their accountability.
Nevertheless, the motto of IOC President Thomas Bach over the past 4 years – during which he has pushed forward his reform programme to make sure that the Olympic Movement is modernised and stays a world-leading community within the twenty first century – has been “change or be modified“This mindset must shape our vision for the longer term of entertainment as we watch recent experience formats emerge.
It is probably not too far-off Viewers could have the chance to see Olympic athletes as digital avatars – highly accurate computer-generated animated versions of themselves – and this might create a brand new and younger audience that grew up with computer games.
Alternatively, energetic e-sports are resulting in recent hybrid sports during which athletes compete against one another in virtual worlds by Full-body tracking technologycompeting from anywhere on the earth, all connected via the cloud, which was tested with great success during COVID restrictions.
The use of AI comes at a vital time in Olympic history because it is an event that uses recent technologies. The key global partners are corporations which can be setting recent standards in technological innovation – the economic driver that underpins the Olympic industry, and shape the character of games within the twenty first century.
